. WALLS .

WALLS

Without consideration, without pity, without shame

they built great towering walls all around me.

And I sit here now despairing.

I think of nothing else; this fate gnaws at my mind;

for I had so many things to do outside.

Why didn’t I notice when they were building walls.

But I never heard any noise or sound of builders.

Imperceptibly they shut me off from the world.

Constantine P. Cavafy

(Translation by David Connolly)

. TO REMAIN .

TO REMAIN

It must have been one in the morning

or one-thirty.

      In a corner of the tavern;

behind the wooden partition.

The place was completely empty save for the two of us.

An oil-lamp provided scant light.

The drowsy waiter was dozing by the door.

No one would have seen us. Yet already

we were so aroused,

that we’d become incapable of caution.

Our clothes were half-open  -  not that there were many

for the divine month of July was blazing hot.

Pleasure of the flesh through

the half-open clothes;

quick baring of the flesh – the image of which

crossed twenty-six years; and has come now

to remain in this poetry.

(C.P. CAVAFY) Selected poems

Translated by David Connolly

Dedication to William Michaelian

Recently Banned Literature

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