"Desires" Like beautiful bodies of the dead who had not grown old and they shut them, with tears, in a magnificent mausoleum, with roses at the head… - Konstantinos P. Cavafy

Desires Like the beautiful bodies of those who died young,
tearfully interred in a grand mausoleum
with roses by their heads and jasmine at their feet –
so seem those desires that have passed
without fulfilment; without a single night
of pleasure, or one of its radiant mornings.

Roses by the head, jasmine at the feet — so appear the longings that have passed without being satisfied, not one of them granted a night of sensual pleasure, or one of its radiant mornings.

Hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.

Had You Loved Me

If a shining ray of love should warm the darkness of my life
the first throb of my grief-stricken soul would be a happy rhapsody.
I do not dare to whisper what I wish to tell you;
that to live without you is an unbearable penalty for me.
Had you loved me...but alas, this is a deceptive hope!

Had you loved me I would see the end of tears
and hidden pains.
Indeed the guileful hesitations would no longer
dare to show their crafty face.
You would be found amid divine visions.
Rose blossoms would have adorned the bramble of life.
Had you loved me...but alas, this is a deceptive hope.

He said he'd hurt himself against a wall or had fallen down.
But there was probably some other reason for the wounded, the bandaged shoulder.

With a rather abrupt gesture, reaching for a shelf to bring down some photographs he wanted to look at, the bandage came came undone and a little blood ran.

I did it up again, taking my time over the binding; he wasn't in pain and I liked looking at the blood. It was a thing of my love, that blood.

When he left, I found, in front of his chair, a bloody rag, part of the dressing, a rag to be thrown straight into the garbage; and I put it to my lips and kept it there a long while- the blood of love against my lips.