AWAITING THE
BARBARIANS
by
Constantin
P. Cavafy
Konstantinos Kavafis, a Jew of Alexandria
Composed in 1904
A new translation from the Greek
by Anthony Weir
The recording of Cavafy reading this poem cannot be heard with a Firefox browser.
What are we all waiting for, packed into the
Forum?
~ The Barbarians
are due today.
Why such inanition
in the Senate ?
Why do the Senators sit and do nothing ?
~ Because the Barbarians
will arrive today:
what laws can the Senators usefully pass now ?
When the Barbarians come the Barbarians will make the laws.
Why did our Emperor
rise so early,
and sit enthroned and crowned
at the capital's main checkpoint ?
~ Because the Barbarians
are expected today.
And the Emperor is waiting to welcome their Führer.
He has had a scroll inscribed to present to them
with titles and encomiums.
Why have our two Consuls
and the Prætors today come out
in red, embroidered robes -
why are they bedizened with jewel-studded bracelets,
and rings magnificent with sparkling emeralds -
why are they carrying costly canes today,
exquisitely inlaid with silver and with gold ?
~ Because the Barbarians
will be here today,
and such things impress Barbarians.
Why don't our Distinguished
Orators come as ever
to deliver their speeches and drive home their points ?
~ Because the Barbarians
are to arrive today;
and they get bored with orations and rhetoric.
Why now this restlessness,
confusion ? (How solemn their faces have become!).
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone heading home in dreadful apprehension ?
~ Because it's night
now - and no Barbarians.
A few folk have come back from the Frontier.
They say there are Barbarians no longer.
So what will we do
now without Barbarians ?
They would have been a sort of solution.
click image for
Greek
version
CYNARA by Ernest Dowson >
SNAKE
by D.H. Lawrence >
LEDA
AND THE SWAN by W.B. Yeats >
translations
of poems
by
Arthur Rimbaud >
BEPPO
by Lord Byron >
and
Pierre de Ronsard's incomparable sonnet
"Quand
vous serez bien vieille..." >>
