All Poems

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Dangerous Things

© Constantine Cavafy

Said Myrtias (a Syrian student
in Alexandria; in the reign of
Augustus Constans and Augustus Constantius;
in part a pagan, and in part a christian);

Voices

© Constantine Cavafy

Ideal and beloved voices
of those who are dead, or of those
who are lost to us like the dead.

Return often and take me,
beloved sensation, return and take me --
when the memory of the body awakens,
and an old desire runs again through the blood;
when the lips and the skin remember,
and the hands feel as if they touch again.

Morning Sea

© Constantine Cavafy

Let me stop here. Let me, too, look at nature awhile.
The brilliant blue of the morning sea, of the cloudless sky,
the yellow shore; all lovely,
all bathed in light.

Poseidonians

© Constantine Cavafy

The Poseidonians forgot the Greek language
after so many centuries of mingling
with Tyrrhenians, Latins, and other foreigners.
The only thing surviving from their ancestors

Che Fece ... Il Gran Rifiuto

© Constantine Cavafy

For some people the day comes
when they have to declare the great Yes
or the great No. It's clear at once who has the Yes
ready within him; and saying it,

The Bandaged Shoulder

© Constantine Cavafy

He said that he had hurt himself on a wall or that he had fallen.
But there was probably another reason
for the wounded and bandaged shoulder.

Half An Hour

© Constantine Cavafy

I never had you, nor will I ever have you
I suppose. A few words, an approach
as in the bar yesterday, and nothing more.
It is, undeniably, a pity. But we who serve Art

Darius

But he is interrupted by his servant who enters
running, and announces the portendous news.
The war with the Romans has begun.
The bulk of our army has crossed the borders.

Hidden Things

Let them not seek to discover who I was
from all that I have done and said.
An obstacle was there that transformed
the deeds and the manner of my life.

Remember, Body...

Body, remember not only how much you were loved,
not only the beds on which you lay,
but also those desires which for you
plainly glowed in the eyes,

Walls

Without consideration, without pity, without shame
they have built great and high walls around me.And now I sit here and despair.
I think of nothing else: this fate gnaws at my mind;for I had many things to do outside.
Ah why did I not pay attention when they were building the walls.But I never heard any noise or sound of builders.