Читать книгу The Complete Poems of C.P. Cavafy - Daniel Mendelsohn, Daniel Mendelsohn - Страница 59

In part to ascertain a certain date

and in part to while away the time,

last night I took down a collection

of Ptolemaic inscriptions to read.

The unstinting laudations and flatteries

are the same for all. All of them are brilliant,

glorious, mighty, beneficent;

every undertaking utterly wise.

As for the women of the line, they too,

all the Berenices and the Cleopatras, are wonderful too.

When I successfully ascertained the date

I’d have finished with the book, if a tiny,

insignificant reference to King Caesarion

­hadn’t attracted my attention suddenly. . . . . .

Ah, there: you came with your indefinite

charm. In history there are only a few

lines that can be found concerning you;

and so I could fashion you more freely in my mind.

I fashioned you this way: beautiful and feeling.

My artistry gives to your face

a beauty that has a dreamy winsomeness.

And so fully did I imagine you

that yesterday, late at night, when the lamp

went out—I deliberately let it go out—

I dared to think you came into my room,

it seemed to me you stood before me: as you must have been

in Alexandria after it had been conquered,

pale and wearied, perfect in your sorrow,

still hoping they’d have mercy on you,

those vile men—who whispered “Surfeit of Caesars.”

[1914; 1918]