The Complete Poems of C.P. Cavafy. Daniel Mendelsohn

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      Since Nine—

      Half past twelve. The time has quickly passed

      since nine o’clock when I first turned up the lamp

      and sat down here. I’ve been sitting without reading,

      without speaking. With whom should I speak,

      so utterly alone within this house?

      The apparition of my body in its youth,

      since nine o’clock when I first turned up the lamp,

      has come and found me and reminded me

      of shuttered perfumed rooms

      and of pleasure spent—what wanton pleasure!

      And it also brought before my eyes

      streets made unrecognizable by time,

      bustling city centres that are no more

      and theatres and cafés that existed long ago.

      The apparition of my body in its youth

      came and also brought me cause for pain:

      deaths in the family; separations;

      the feelings of my loved ones, the feelings of

      those long dead which I so little valued.

      Half past twelve. How the time has passed.

      Half past twelve. How the years have passed.

      [1917; 1918]