He’s an old man. Used up and bent, crippled by time and indulgence, he slowly walks along the narrow street. But when he goes inside his house to hide the shambles of his old age, his mind turns to the share in youth that still belongs to him. His verse is now recited by young men. His visions come before their lively eyes. Their healthy sensual minds, their shapely taut bodies stir to his perception of the beautiful.
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