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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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The Next Table  
by C. P. Cavafy
translated by Avi Sharon

He can't be more than twenty-two.
And yet I'm certain it was at least that many years ago
that I enjoyed the very same body.

This isn't some erotic fantasy.
I've only just come into the casino
and there hasn't been time enough to drink.
I tell you, that's the very same body I once enjoyed.

And if I can't recall precisely where—that means nothing.

Now that he's sitting there at the next table,
I recognize each of his movements—and beneath his clothes
I see those beloved, naked limbs again.



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From C. P. Cavafy: Selected Poems translated by Avi Sharon. Published by Penguin Classics. Copyright © 2008 by Avi Sharon. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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