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C. P. Cavafy
C. P. Cavafy
Constantine Cavafy was born Konstantínos Pétrou Kaváfis in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1863, the...
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Ionian

 
by C. P. Cavafy
translated by Aliki Barnstone

Because we smashed their statues, 
because we threw them out of their temples, 
in no way means their gods are dead. 
O Ionian land, the gods still love you, 
their souls still remember you. 
When an August morning dawns over you, 
an energy from the gods' lives crosses through your atmosphere; 
and sometimes an ethereal adolescent form, 
indistinct, with a quick stride, 
crosses above your hills. 






From The Collected Poems of C. P. Cavafy: A New Translation by C. P. Cavafy, translated by Aliki Barnstone. Copyright © 2006 by Aliki Barnston. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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