C.P. Cavafy - cosmopolitan, homosexual, fallen aristocrat whose best-known poem, "Waiting for the Barbarians," tells of a society which may be described by what it excludes. The poem resonates beyond any historical context, is timeless and universal like so many other Cavafy poems in general and the one below in particular. This has the wonderfully enticing title, "One Night."
"And there on that common, humble bed
I had love’s body, had those intoxicating lips,
red and sensual,
red lips of such intoxication
that now as I write, after so many years,
in my lonely house, I’m drunk with passion again."
But it is "Waiting for the Barbarians" I want to focus on. But then, I thought, why write about it? Let readers find it on the internet and read it for themselves. Here is the first line.
Why is there such great idleness inside Senate house?
Why are the Senators sitting there, not passing any laws?
Because the barbarians will arrive today. Why should the senators still be making laws? The barbarians, when they come, will legislate.
But read the rest of the poem and decide for yourself what Cavafy is driving at. Cultural exhaustion? Political inertia? The yearning for some crisis that might reinvigorate current politics? This may be a story you have heard before and never dreamed you would live through.
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