Читать книгу The Complete Poems of C.P. Cavafy - Daniel Mendelsohn, Daniel Mendelsohn - Страница 22

And even if you cannot make your life the way you want it,

this much, at least, try to do

as much as you can: don’t cheapen it

with too much intercourse with society,

with too much movement and conversation.

Don’t cheapen it by taking it about,

making the rounds with it, exposing it

to the everyday inanity

of relations and connections,

so it becomes like a stranger, burdensome.

[1905; 1913]