Constantine P. Cavafy Short Quotes

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From all I did and all I said
let no one try to find out who I was.

Constantine P. Cavafy
But Argos can do without the sons of Atreus. Ancient houses are not eternal.

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

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

Constantine P. Cavafy
The empire is delivered at last.
The vile, the appalling Julian
reigns no longer.

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

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

Constantine P. Cavafy
From my most unnoticed actions,
my most veiled writing —
from these alone will I be understood.

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
And in Spain Galba
secretly musters and drills his army —
Galba, the old man in his seventy-third year.

Constantine P. Cavafy
What are we all waiting for gathered together like this on the public square? The Barbarians are coming today.

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

Constantine P. Cavafy
When setting out upon your way to Ithaca,
wish always that your course be long,
full of adventure, full of lore.

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
New places you will not find, you will not find another sea
The city will follow you.
You will roam the same streets.

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
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
I'm practically broke and homeless.
This fatal city, Antioch,
has devoured all my money:
this fatal city with its extravagant life.

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
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
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
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
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
I created you while I was happy, while I was sad,
with so many incidents, so many details. And, for me, the whole of you has been transformed into feeling.

Constantine P. Cavafy
We won't be deceived
by titles such as Indispensable and Unique and Great.
Someone else indispensable and unique and great can always be found at a moment's notice.

Constantine P. Cavafy
He wasn't completely wrong, poor old Gemistus
(let Lord Andronicus and the patriarch suspect him if they like),
in wanting us, telling us to become pagan once again.

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
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
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