Constantine P. Cavafy

29 April 1863 – 29 April 1933 / Alexandria

'The Rest I Will Tell to Those Down In Hades'

'Indeed,' said the proconsul, closing the book,
'This line is beautiful and very true.
Sophocles wrote it in a deeply philosophic mood.
How much we'll tell down there, how much,
and how very different we'll appear.
What we protect here like sleepless guards,
wounds and secrets locked inside us,
protect with such great anxiety day after day,
we'll reveal freely and clearly down there.'
'You might add,' said the sophist, half smiling,
'if they talk about things like that down there,
if they bother about them at all any more.'
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