Constantine P. Cavafy: Likeness

“The Spartans weren't to be led
and ordered around
like precious servants.”

Constantine P. Cavafy

" In The Year 200 B.C. http://cavafis.compupress.gr/kave_1.htm" (1931)
Context: The Spartans weren't to be led
and ordered around
like precious servants. Besides,
they wouldn't have thought a pan-Hellenic expedition
without a Spartan king in command
was to be taken very seriously.
Of course, then, "except the Lacedaimonians." That's certainly one point of view. Quite understandable.

“On hearing about powerful love, respond, be moved
like an aesthete.
On hearing about powerful love, respond, be moved
like an aesthete. Only, fortunate as you’ve been,
remember how much your imagination created for you.”

Constantine P. Cavafy

Source: http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=157&cat=4 On Hearing of Love
Collected Poems (1992)

Love

“The days of the future stand in front of us
Like a line of candles all alight —
Golden and warm and lively little candles.”

Constantine P. Cavafy

"Candles" [Κεριά], as translated by Manolis, in Constantine P. Cavafy: Poems (2008) edited by George Amabile

Future

“Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.”

Constantine P. Cavafy Waiting for the Barbarians

Source: Waiting for the Barbarians (1904), l. 16

“How much we’ll tell down there, how much,
and how very different we’ll appear.
What we protect here like sleepless guards,
wounds and secrets locked inside us,
protect with such great anxiety day after day,
we’ll disclose freely and clearly down there.”

Constantine P. Cavafy

“The Rest I Will Tell to Those Down to Hades” http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=173&cat=4
Collected Poems (1992)

Secret , Appearance

“Later, in a more perfect society,
someone else made just like me
is certain to appear and act freely.”

Constantine P. Cavafy

Κατόπι — στὴν τελειοτέρα κοινωνία —
κανένας ἄλλος καμωμένος σὰν ἐμένα
βέβαια θὰ φανεῖ κ’ ἐλεύθερα θὰ κάμει.
Hidden Things
Collected Poems (1992)

Appearance , Perfection

“A month passes by and brings another month.
Easy to guess what lies ahead:
all of yesterday’s boredom.
And tomorrow ends up no longer like tomorrow.”

Constantine P. Cavafy

Monotony http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=96&cat=1
Collected Poems (1992)