Poem
Constantine Cavafy
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS
Said Myrtias (a Syrian studentin Alexandria during the reign
of the Emperor Konstans and the Emperor Konstantios;
in part a heathen, in part chistianized):
“Strengthened by study and reflection.
I won’t fear my passions like a coward;
I’ll give my body to sensual pleasures,
to enjoyments I’ve dreamed of,
to the most audacious erotic desires,
to the lascivious impulses of my blood,
with no fear at all, because when I wish—
and I’ll have the will-power, strengthened
as I shall be by study and reflection—
when I wish, at critical moments I will recover
my spirit, ascetic as it was before.”
© Translation: 1992, Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
From: Collected poems
Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1992
From: Collected poems
Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1992
Dangerous thoughts
Poems
Poems of Constantine Cavafy
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DANGEROUS THOUGHTS
Said Myrtias (a Syrian studentin Alexandria during the reign
of the Emperor Konstans and the Emperor Konstantios;
in part a heathen, in part chistianized):
“Strengthened by study and reflection.
I won’t fear my passions like a coward;
I’ll give my body to sensual pleasures,
to enjoyments I’ve dreamed of,
to the most audacious erotic desires,
to the lascivious impulses of my blood,
with no fear at all, because when I wish—
and I’ll have the will-power, strengthened
as I shall be by study and reflection—
when I wish, at critical moments I will recover
my spirit, ascetic as it was before.”
© 1992, Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
From: Collected poems
Publisher: 1992, Princeton University Press, Princeton
From: Collected poems
Publisher: 1992, Princeton University Press, Princeton
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS
Said Myrtias (a Syrian studentin Alexandria during the reign
of the Emperor Konstans and the Emperor Konstantios;
in part a heathen, in part chistianized):
“Strengthened by study and reflection.
I won’t fear my passions like a coward;
I’ll give my body to sensual pleasures,
to enjoyments I’ve dreamed of,
to the most audacious erotic desires,
to the lascivious impulses of my blood,
with no fear at all, because when I wish—
and I’ll have the will-power, strengthened
as I shall be by study and reflection—
when I wish, at critical moments I will recover
my spirit, ascetic as it was before.”
© 1992, Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
From: Collected poems
Publisher: 1992, Princeton University Press, Princeton
From: Collected poems
Publisher: 1992, Princeton University Press, Princeton
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