Bring Me My Bride

John K. Taber jktaber at dhc.net
Tue Feb 9 15:04:54 PST 1999


Cute, Max. Here is Cavafy in a far more cynical piece:

IN A TOWNSHIP IN ASIA MINOR

The news about the outcome of the sea-battle at Actium was of course unexpected. But there's no need for us to draft a new proclamation. The names's the only thing that has to be changed. There, in teh concluding lines, instead of: "Having freed the

Romans from Octavius, that disaster, that parody of a Caesar," we'll substitute: "Having freed the Romans from Antony, that disaster, ..." The whole text fits very nicely.

"To the most glorious victor, matchless in his military ventures, prodigious in his political operations, on whose behalf the township ardently wished for Antony's triumph, ... " here, as we said, the substitution: "for Octavius

Caesar's triumph, regarding it as Zeus' finest gift -- to this mighty protector of the Greeks, who graciously hanors Greek customs, who is beloved in every Greek domain, who clearly deserves exalted praise, and whose exploits should be recorded at length in the Greek language, in both verse and prose, in the _Greek Language_, the vehicle of fame," et cetera, et cetera. It all fits brilliantly.

-- Homines id quod volunt credunt.



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