Читать книгу The Complete Poems of C.P. Cavafy - Daniel Mendelsohn, Daniel Mendelsohn - Страница 61

Emes, a young man of twenty-eight, came by a Tenian

ship (meaning to learn the incense trade) to this Syrian

haven. But during the voyage he took sick,

and just after he had disembarked,

he died. His burial, the very cheapest kind,

took place there. A few hours before he died,

he whispered something about “home” and “elderly parents.”

But no one knew who they might have been;

nor what his native land might be, in all the wide Greek world.

Better this way. For this way, while

he lies dead in this safe haven,

his parents will keep hoping he’s still alive.

[1917; 1918]