C. P. Cavafy, "Antony's Ending"

[the_grynne]

ANTONY'S ENDING

But when he heard the women weeping--
the lady with her eastern gestures
and her servants with their barbaric Greek
mourning his fall--
the pride of his soul rose up,
his Italian blood was disgusted,
and everything that before he adored blindly
now appeared alien and indifferent--
his whole passionate Alexandrian life--
and he said, "not to cry for him. Such things are not fitting.
Rather they should sing his praises,
for he was a great leader,
and won many riches and much more.
And if he's fallen, he's not fallen humbly,
but as a Roman vanquished by a Roman."

CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY

Translated by Aliki Barnstone