The God Abandons Anthony
By Constantinos P. Cavafy
When suddenly there is heard at midnight
A company passing invinsible
With wonderful music, with voices, -
Your fortune giving way now, your works
Which have failed, the plans of a lifetime
All turned illusions, do not mourn uselessly.
As one prepared long since, courageously,
Say farewell to her, to Alexandria who is leaving.
Above all do not be tricked, never say it was
All a dream, and that your hearing was deceived;
Do not stoop to such vain hopes as these.
As one prepared long since, courageously,
As becomes one worthy as you were of such a city,
Firmly draw near the window,
And listen with emotion but not
with the complainings and entreaties of cowards,
Listen, your last enjoyment, to the sounds,
The wonderful instruments of the mystic company,
And say farewell, farewell to Alexandria you are losing.
The poems of C.P. Cavafy.
(Translated by J. Mavrogordatos)
The Hogarth Press, London 1951, p. 26.
N.B. There is a remark in Plutarch about the Roman tragic figure of Mark Anthony
seeing his fortunes turned around, seeing his glory vanished, seeing love
turned to hatred, seeing god's favour turned into irony and sarcasm.