Kallimachos Quotes

“Here Philippos the father buried his son Nikoteles,
a child of twelve and his dearest hope.”
― Kallimachos

“When I heard you were dead, Heraclitus,
tears came, and I remembered how often
you and I had talked the sun to bed.
Long ago you turned to ashes, my Halicarnassian friend,
but your poems, your Nightingales, still live.
Hades clutches all things yet can't touch these.”
― Kallimachos

“Passerby, do not wish me well with your sour heart.
Go away. And I shall be well by your being gone.”
― Kallimachos

“They brought me word of your death,
Heraklieitos,
and I wept for you
remembering how often we watched the sun
setting as we talked.

Dear Halikarnassian friend,
you lie elsewhere now
and are mere ashes;
yet your songs—your nightingales—will live,
and never will the underworld,
destroying everything,
touch them with its deadly hand.”
― Kallimachos

“Who are you, O shipwrecked stranger?
Leontichos found your corpse on the beach,
buried you in this grave
and cried thinking of his own hazardous life.
For he knows no rest:
he too roams over the sea like a gull.”
― Kallimachos