Senza preavviso, né pietà, senza nessun pudore,
muri massicci ed alti mi hanno costruito intorno.
E sono qui che mi dispero e per il mio dolore
non penso ad altro: e mi rodo il cervello tutto il giorno.
Perché, là fuori avevo molte cose da fare.
Ma che costruissero i muri, non ho avuto sentori.
Non ho sentito i colpi di chi era lì a murare.
A mia insaputa, dal mondo mi hanno chiuso fuori.
Konstantinos Kavafis | Walls
Without reflection, without mercy, without shame,
they built strong walls and high, and compassed me about.
And now I sit here and consider and despair.
My brain is worn with meditating on my fate:
I had outside so many things to terminate.
Oh! why when they were building did I not beware!
But never a sound of building, never an echo came.
Out of the world, insensibly, they shut me out.
Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis / Κωνσταντίνος Πέτρου Καβάφης (1863-1933), known, especially in English, as Constantine P. Cavafy and often published as C. P. Cavafy, was a Greek poet, journalist and civil servant from Alexandria.
A major figure of modern Greek literature, he is sometimes considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century.
His works and consciously individual style earned him a place among the most important contributors not only to Greek poetry, but to Western poetry as a whole.
Κωνσταντίνου Καβάφη | Τείχη
Χωρίς περίσκεψιν, χωρίς λύπην, χωρίς αιδώ
μεγάλα κ' υψηλά τριγύρω μου έκτισαν τείχη.
Και κάθομαι και απελπίζομαι τώρα εδώ.
Άλλο δεν σκέπτομαι: τον νουν μου τρώγει αυτή η τύχη·
διότι πράγματα πολλά έξω να κάμω είχον.
Α όταν έκτιζαν τα τείχη πώς να μην προσέξω.
Αλλά δεν άκουσα ποτέ κρότον κτιστών ή ήχον.
Ανεπαισθήτως μ' έκλεισαν από τον κόσμον έξω.