Constantine P. Cavafy, 29 April 1863 - 29 April 1933

Today, while they embed the new French drain in the patio,
Send 145 life and death greetings to Constantine P. Cavafy:

Whose student, closer to Shanghai than Istanbul,
dreams past the porcelain Hospice of Sta. Caterina
and walks into the field where his mother,
who to him has become the Duchesse d’Guermantes,
sits on the hood of an antique Rolls-Royce smoking cigarettes.

And look how he promises her a portrait

of each border crossed resident:
That she might know each family and send each a
Welcome Wagon.

~

http://cavafis.compupress.gr/index.htm