Body, Remember....
Body, remember not only how much you were loved,
not only the beds you lay on,
but also those desires that glowed openly
in eyes that looked at you,
trembled for you in the voices—
only some chance obstacle frustrated them.
Now that it’s all finally in the past,
it seems almost as if you gave yourself
to those desires too—how they glowed,
remember, in eyes that looked at you,
remember, body, how they trembled for you in those voices.
Reprinted from C. P. CAVAFY: Collected Poems Revised Edition, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savvidis. 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
Cuerpo, recuerda no solo cuánto se te amó,
no solo los lechos donde has yacido,
mas también aquellos deseos que por ti
en miradas brillaron claramente
y en la voz se estremecieron, y que un
obstáculo fortuito los frustró.
Ahora que todo se halla en el pasado,
parece casi que a los deseos
aquellos te hubieras entregado; cómo brillaban,
recuerda, en los ojos que te miraban;
cómo en la voz por ti se estremecían, recuerda, cuerpo.
Cavafis, C. (2023). Ciento cincuenta y cuatro poemas (P. Bádenas de la Peña, traducción e introducción). UMA Editorial.
The Canon