Orophernis

The figure on this four drachma coin who seems to have a smile on his face— his beautiful, delicate face— this is Orophernis, son of Ariarathis. A child, they threw him out of Cappadocia, out of his great ancestral palace, and sent him to grow up in Ionia, to be forgotten there among foreigners. On those exquisite Ionian nights when fearlessly, and entirely in a Greek way, he came to know sensual pleasure totally. In his heart, Asiatic always, but in manners and language, a Greek; with his turquoise jewelry, his Greek clothes, his body perfumed with oil of jasmine, he was the most handsome, the most perfect of Ionia’s handsome young men. Later, when the Syrians entered Cappadocia and made him king, he became fully engrossed in his kingship so as to enjoy himself in a new way each day, greedily hoarding gold and silver, delightedly gloating over the piles of wealth glittering before his eyes. As for worrying about the country and running it— he had no idea what was going on around him. The Cappadocians quickly got rid of him, and he ended up in Syria, at the palace of Dimitrios, where he spent his time amusing himself and loafing. But one day unfamiliar thoughts broke in on his completely idle life: he remembered how through his mother Antiochis and that old grandmother Stratoniki he too was connected with the Syrian crown, he too almost a Selefkid. For a while he gave up lechery and drink, and ineptly, half dazed, tried to start an intrigue, do something, come up with a plan; but he failed pitifully and was reduced to nothing. His end must have been recorded somewhere only to be lost: or maybe history passed over it and rightly didn’t bother to notice a thing so trivial. The figure on this four drachma coin, a trace of whose young charm can still be seen, a ray of his poetic beauty— this sensuous commemoration of an Ionian boy, this is Orophernis, son of Ariarathis.

Reprinted from C.P. CAVAFY: Collected Poems Revised Edition, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savidis. Translation copyright © 1975, 1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Princeton University Press. For reuse of these translations, please contact Princeton University Press.

Translations in other languages

Este que en la tetradracma parece iluminar su rostro con una sonrisa, su hermoso, fino rostro, éste es Orofernes, hijo de Ariarates. De niño lo expulsaron de Capadocia, del gran palacio de su padre, y a crecer lo mandaron a Jonia, en medio de gente extranjera olvidado. ¡Ah, noches maravillosas de Jonia! donde sin miedos y por completo a la griega conoció la plenitud del placer. En su corazón, siempre asiático; pero griego en sus modales y lengua, ornado de turquesas, vestido a la griega, ungido su cuerpo con aroma de jazmín y, entre los hermosos jóvenes de Jonia, el más hermoso, él, el más ideal. Luego, cuando entraron los sirios en Capadocia y lo hicieron rey, se volcó en su realeza por gozar cada día de un modo nuevo, por amasar con avidez oro y plata, por deleitarse y envanecerse viendo brillar apiladas sus riquezas. En cuanto al cuidado del país y del gobierno, ignoraba lo que en torno suyo sucedía. Los capadocios pronto lo echaron y se refugió en Siria, en el palacio de Demetrio a divertirse y vaguear. Un día, sin embargo, insólitos pensamientos irrumpieron su ocio prolongado; recordó que por su madre Antióquide y por aquella vetusta Estratonice llevaba él sangre de la casa real de Siria y que casi era un Seléucida. Se apartó por poco tiempo de la lascivia y la embriaguez, y torpemente, medio aturdido, intentó maquinar algo, hacer algo, planear alguna cosa, pero fracasó miserablemente y fue aniquilado. Su fin quizá se escribió en alguna parte y se perdió; o igual la historia lo pasó por alto y, con razón, existencia tan inane no estimara oportuno consignarla. Este que en la tetradracma dejó la impronta de su hermosa juventud, una luz de su poética belleza, el recuerdo sensual de un muchacho de Jonia, es Orofernes, hijo de Ariarates.

Cavafis, C. (2023). Ciento cincuenta y cuatro poemas (P. Bádenas de la Peña, traducción e introducción). UMA Editorial.

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