They stood among many others close to a lighted tobacco shop window. Their glances met by chance and timidly, haltingly expressed the illicit desire of their bodies. Then a few uneasy steps along the street until they smiled, and nodded slightly. And after that the closed carriage, the sensitive approach of body to body, hands linked, lips meeting.
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.
The Canon