It is one of the talents of great stylists to make obsolete words cease from appearing obsolete through the way in which they introduce them in their… - Konstantinos P. Cavafy

SETI SE, TELO...

Telo, seti se ne samo koliko si bilo voljeno,
ne jedino kreveta na kojima si ležalo,
nego i onih želja, koja su zbog tebe
iskrile u onim jasnim očima
i drhtale u glasu – a neka ih je
slučajna prepreka osujetila.
Sada, kad je sve to već u prošlosti,
izgleda skoro kao da si se onim
željama i predavalo – kako su iskrile,
seti se, u očima što su te gledale:
kako su drhtale u glasu zbog tebe, seti se, telo.

Days to come stand in front of us
like a row of lighted candles — golden, warm, and vivid candles.

Days gone by fall behind us,
a gloomy line of snuffed-out candles;
the nearest are smoking still,
cold, melted, and bent.

I don’t want to look at them: their shape saddens me,
and it saddens me to remember their original light.
I look ahead at my lighted candles.

I don’t want to turn for fear of seeing, terrified,
how quickly that dark line gets longer,
how quickly the snuffed-out candles proliferate.

The matter, says Mardonios, has gone too far, the talk it has aroused must be stopped at all cost. — So Julian goes to the church at Nicomedia, a lector again, and there with deep reverence he reads out loud passages from the Holy Scriptures, and everyone marvels at his Christian piety.