Constantine P. Cavafy Quotes

67 Sourced Quotes

What are we waiting for, gathered in the market-place?
The barbarians are to arrive today.

Constantine P. Cavafy
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
If you are one of the truly elect,
be careful how you attain your eminence.

Constantine P. Cavafy
And from this marvellous pan-Hellenic expedition,
triumphant, brilliant in every way,
celebrated on all sides, glorified
incomparable, we emerged:
the great new Hellenic world.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Guard, O my soul, against pomp and glory.
And if you cannot curb your ambitions,
at least pursue them hesitantly, cautiously.
And the higher you go,
the more searching and careful you need to be.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Whatever job they give me,
I'll try to be useful to the country. That's what I intend.
But if they frustrate me with their manoeuvres —
we know them, those smart operators: no need to say more here —
if they frustrate me, it's not my fault.

Constantine P. Cavafy
One candle is enough. Its gentle light
will be more suitable, will be more gracious
when the Shades arrive, the Shades of Love.

Constantine P. Cavafy
And now, what will become of us without the barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.

Constantine P. Cavafy
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
He remembers impulses bridled, the joy
he sacrificed. Every chance he lost
now mocks his senseless caution.

Constantine P. Cavafy
The greatest gods of our glorious Greece
appeared before you.
And if they left, don't think for a minute
that they were frightened by a gesture.

Constantine P. Cavafy
That we've broken their statues,
that we've driven them out of their temples,
doesn't mean at all that the gods are dead.
O land of Ionia, they're still in love with you,
their souls still keep your memory.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Body, remember not only how much you were loved,
not only the beds you lay on,
but also those desires glowing openly
in eyes that looked at you,
trembling for you in voices.

Constantine P. Cavafy
He was a quiet, gentle man,
a man who loved peace
(his country had suffered much
from the wars of his predecessor),
he behaved graciously toward everyone,
humble and great alike.
Never high-handed, he always sought advice
in the kingdom's affairs
from serious, experienced people. Just why his nephew killed him
was never precisely explained.

Constantine P. Cavafy
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home lost in thought? Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come.
And some of our men who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer. Now what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Things impolitic and dangerous:
praise for Greek ideals,
supernatural magic, visits to pagan temples.
Enthusiasm for the ancient gods

Constantine P. Cavafy
You'll not find another place, you'll not find another sea. This city is going to follow you.

Constantine P. Cavafy
And if you can't shape your life the way you want,
at least try as much as you can
not to degrade it
by too much contact with the world,
by too much activity and talk.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Honor to those who in the life they lead
define and guard a Thermopylae.
Never betraying what is right,
consistent and just in all they do
but showing pity also, and compassion;
generous when they are rich, and when they are poor,
still generous in small ways,
still helping as much as they can;
always speaking the truth,
yet without hating those who lie.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Try to keep them, poet,
those erotic visions of yours,
however few of them there are that can be stilled.
Put them, half-hidden, in your lines.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Setting out on the voyage to Ithaca you must pray that the way be long, full of adventures and experiences.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Of what's to come the wise perceive
things about to happen. Sometimes during moments of intense study
their hearing's troubled: the hidden sound
of things approaching reaches them,
and they listen reverently, while in the street outside
the people hear nothing whatsoever.

Constantine P. Cavafy
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
Ithaka gave you the splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn't anything else to give you.

Constantine P. Cavafy
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
Pleasure will have much to teach him.
He will not be afraid of the destructive act; one half of the house must be pulled down.
This way he will grow virtuously into knowledge.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Nero wasn't worried at all when he heard
the utterance of the Delphic Oracle:
Beware the age of seventy-three.
Plenty of time to enjoy himself still.
He's thirty. The deadline
the god has given him is quite enough
to cope with future dangers.

Constantine P. Cavafy
I look before me at my lighted candles,
I don't want to turn around and see with horror
How quickly the dark line is lengthening,
How quickly the candles multiply that have been put out.

Constantine P. Cavafy
The love they felt wasn't, of course, what it once had been;
the attraction between them had gradually diminished,
the attraction had diminished a great deal.
But to be separated, that wasn't what they themselves wanted.

Constantine P. Cavafy