Constantine Cavafy – Poems

Philellene
Be careful that the engraving is artistic.
The expression serious and majestic.
The crown better be somewhat narrow;
I don’t like those broad ones the Parthians wear.
The inscription, as usual, in Greek;
not extravagant, not pompous—
that proconsul who always digs around
and reports to Rome might get the wrong idea—
but in any case of course dignified.
On the other side place something special;
a handsome ephebe disc-thrower.
Above all I urge you to make sure
(Sithaspis, in God’s name, do not forget)
that after the words King and Savior,
they engrave, in elegant letters, Philellene.
Now don’t start in with your wittiness,
your “Where are the Greeks?” and “Where is anything
Greek behind Zagros, or beyond Phraata?”
If so many others more barbaric than us
write it, we will write it as well.
And finally do not forget that often
sophists from Syria visit us,
and verse writers, and other vain scholars.
Therefore we are not non—Hellenes, I believe.

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Hours of the Stars

Perseus
To see the verdure of the garden close up and
may the south spread gleaming stalagmites
praising the ankles of the mossy spring and
to see the sun upon the high threshing floors
whistling bucolic idylls
as it reigns over the ark of youth.
Let the light be bright and
virgin chirps be herd by the springs and
let it be the Saint George’s Day
when I’ll perform the unveiling
of the just Death
scout of the Atlantic Sea and
with coats of arms trustee of the strong whitewash
I’ll wear the bright future

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Wheat Ears

Meadow
First day at the verdant meadow euphoria
of fragrance among Hellenic wild flowers
laurel branches and self centered narcissus
when I grabbed
double colored poplar leaves
meant to dress my nakedness before
the serpent was to come and
I the primeval martyr
stood under the light and named
my cosmos as
I perceived it: virginal and with
a baby rattle in my cradle
to shake and to move from right
to left between two extremes where
the meaning of my life was wedged
when I the infant boy in swaddles
heard one command
as paradisiacal as I had ever
dreamed: stand up, my pride, and create

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