The days to come stand before of us
like a row of lighted candles
golden,warm and vivid candles.
The days that have passed fall behind us,
a mournfull line of extinguished candles
the nearest are still smoking
cold candles,melted and deformed.
I don't want to look at them: their state
saddens me, and it saddens me to remember
their original light.
I look ahead instead, to my lighted candles.
I don't want to turn back to see with horror,
how quickly the dark row of candles has lengthened,
how rapidly the number of dead candles has grown.
Cavafy,born 1863, Alexandria -died 1933, Alexandria.Born to Greek parents.Cavafy worked as an obscure civil servant in Alexandria his entire adult life.His small body of work, some 200 poems in an intimate, realistic, lyrical style, is written in a strange combination of classically based and modern Greek. His poems became popular and influential after his death,and he is now widely regarded as one of the greatest of modern Greek poets.
Woman's Voice
