One candle is enough. Its gentle light will be more suitable, will be more gracious when the Shades arrive, the Shades of Love. - Konstantinos P. Cavafy

Ο ανύπαντρος ζει σαν άνθρωπος και πεθαίνει σαν σκύλος.
Ο παντρεμένος ζει σαν σκύλος και πεθαίνει σαν άνθρωπος...

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.

And now, what will become of us without the barbarians? Those people were a kind of solution.