Do you know who wrote this poem?

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 2:01 am

My girlfriend watche movie by Theo Angelopoulos "Ulysses Gaze" and there was this poem. I doubt that's Cavafy, but I couldn't find song or author using various poetry search sites and google. Only I found out that Cavafy's poem "Ithaca" was used in film, and when I wrote line of poem I got Homer, and Cavafy, and all reviews of movie mentioning both poets. My girlfriend is actully out of country and she asked me is this LC. As you can see, every line can seem like LC's poem. In any case, it's full of that Cohen-Cavafy mood...
Anybody?

When I return,
It will be with another man's clothes
Another man's name
My coming will be unexpected
If you look at me unbelieving, and say "You are not He"
I will show you signs and you will believe me
I will tell you about the lemon tree in your garden
The corner window that lets in the moonlight
And then signs of the body, signs of love
And as we climb, trembling, to our old room
Between one embrace and the next
Between lovers' calls
I will tell you about the journey all the night long
And in all the nights to come, between one embrace and the next
Between lovers' calls
A whole human adventure
The story that never ends...

Byron · Post by **Byron** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 2:43 am

Hello Tom. I have been hunting high and low for this piece, but to no avail. It is now begining to annoy me, that I cannot find the source. I thought that it might have been an update of something by John Donne, but he has nothing similar. Please can someone put me out of my misery?

On a similar point, can someone enlighten me as to the source of;

"The past is another country, they do things differently there", ?

I have had this sentence buzzing around in my head for ages and would prefer to be told by a human being, rather than a computer generated database. I have deliberately avoided using Google etc to find the source.

Thanks in anticipation, Byron.

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 4:30 am

Byron, it's the opening line of L P Hartley's book, The Go-Between. I think it must have been the opening line of the film as well, because it rang all sorts of bells with me, and I never read the book. Such an evocative phrase, and so very true. I watched the film The Land Girls sometime over the recent holidays. It gave a very clear picture of how ordinary people lived at the time, and I found myself thinking at first that it must have been about the first war, because the manners seemed so outdated, but eventually realised that this was the world our parents grew up in, yet to me it was a costume drama

Tom, what a lovely poem - I hope someone manages to find out who wrote it.

Coco · Post by **Coco** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 5:12 am

Hi Byron and LinMag!

Linda, I loved that movie, "The Go-Between".

Julie Christie was so wonderful in it. And Byron, I think the exact quote is: "The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there."

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 7:23 am

I love Julie Christie ~ as well as the concept of the film. Is it available in video stores, do you know?

Coco · Post by **Coco** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 7:46 am

Hi Lizzytysh!

I don't think the film would be in a store like Blockbuster or Movietyme. It came out in 1971 I think. But if there is a rental store in your area that carries unusual or old films it might be there. Alan Bates was in it and so was Edward Fox and Michael Redgrave. The setting for the film is the year 1900. I once saw Michael Redgrave in person. He was touring America doing set pieces from Shakespeare. There were only four people in the company. And during the last part of the show Michael Redgrave went to sleep on stage! He was sitting on a throne and one of the other members of the company was delivering a monologue and Redgrave was up there snoring on the throne.

They had to wake him up.

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 1:37 pm

Thanks everyone!
Byron - I recognized the sentence also. Joseph Losey's The Go-Between is one of my favourite movies, I like such modernistic emotional structures with time and space as used in that great movie...
About this poem. Well, google was right, it must be Homer. I found on some movie forum this same question I put here, and the answer was these are Ulysses' words when he came back home to Ithaca, from Homer's Oddysey. But this poem is not in Homer's verse, so I believe it's ,aybe written by director of this movie, but in any case it is poem based on that motif of Ulysses' return and that scene from The Oddysey.

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 1:39 pm

Lyzz, film is out of stock on amazon, but that could mean you can borrow it from videostore... because it's obviously available in US
tom

Byron · Post by **Byron** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 4:20 pm

Many thanks to each of you. Sadly, Alan Bates died last week.
Regards from Byron.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 9:42 pm

I've just returned to write this. I'm sorry to hear of Alan Bates's death. However, it happened to result in a synchronicity [for you, Byron, and Pete's interest]. I decided to stop what I was working on [inputting info on a Mary Bates] to come check the Forum. The last thing I read, prior to returning, was this thread and the postings regarding Alan Bates. There's another dimension, as well. There is another Mary Bates, whom I have known, literally, all my life. That did occur to me as I typed her name, immediately prior to my coming here today.

I didn't read everything, and figured I'd save the others till later. When I returned to my task, it was only then that I made the connection when I saw her name

. Even both of their first names have 4 letters.

OK. Back to work

.

~ Lizzy