WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS
By Constantine P. Cavafy
translated from the Greek by Stratis Haviaras, 2004
What are we waiting for, gathered here at the agora?
The barbarians are supposed to show up today.
Why is there such indolence in the senate?
Why are the senators sitting around, making no laws?
Because the barbarians are supposed to show up today.
Why should the senators trouble themselves with laws?
When the barbarians arrive, they'll do the legislating.
Why has our emperor risen so early this morning,
and why is he now enthroned at the city gate,
sitting there in state and wearing his crown?
Because the barbarians are supposed to show up today.
And the emperor is waiting there to receive
their leader. He's even had a parchment scroll
prepared as a tribute: it's loaded with
all sorts of titles and high honors.
Why have our two consuls and praetors turned up
today, resplendent in their red brocaded togas;
why are they wearing bracelets encrusted with amethysts,
and rings studded with brilliant, glittering emeralds;
why are they sporting those priceless canes,
the ones of finely-workked gold and silver?
Because the barbarians are supposed to show up today,
and such things really dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't our illustrious speakers come out to speak
as they always do, to speak what is on their minds?
Because the barbarians are supposed to show up today,
and they really can't stand lofty oration and demagogy.
Why is everyone suddenly ill at ease
and confused (just look how solemn their faces are)?
Why are the streets and squares all at once empty,
as everyone heads for home, lost in their thoughts?
Because it's night now, and the barbarians haven't shown up.
And there are others, just back from the borderlands,
who claim that the barbarians no longer exist.
What in the world will we do without the barbarians?
Those people would have been a solution, of sorts.
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