Читать книгу The Complete Poems of C.P. Cavafy - Daniel Mendelsohn, Daniel Mendelsohn - Страница 17

Deep in fear and in suspicion,

with flustered minds and terrified eyes,

we wear ourselves out figuring how

we might avoid the certain

danger that threatens us so terribly.

And yet we’re mistaken, that’s not it ahead:

the news was wrong

(or we ­didn’t hear it; or ­didn’t get it right).

But a disaster that we never imagined

suddenly, shatteringly breaks upon us,

and unprepared—no time left now—we are swept away.

[1910; 1911]