Body, remember not only how much you were loved,not only the beds you lay on,but also those desires that glowed openlyin eyes that looked at you,trembled for you in the voices—only some chance obstacle frustrated them.Now that it’s all finally in the past,it seems almost as if you gave yourselfto those desires too—how they glowed,remember, in eyes that looked at you,remember, body, how they trembled for you in those voices.
Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)