Partly to verify an era, <br />partly also to pass the time, <br />last night I picked up a collection <br />of Ptolemaic epigrams to read. <br />The plentiful praises and flatteries <br />for everyone are similar. They are all brilliant, <br />glorious, mighty, beneficent; <br />each of their enterprises the wisest. <br />If you talk of the women of that breed, they too, <br />all the Berenices and Cleopatras are admirable. <br /> <br />When I had managed to verify the era <br />I would have put the book away, had not a small <br />and insignificant mention of king Caesarion <br />immediately attracted my attention..... <br /> <br />Behold, you came with your vague <br />charm. In history only a few <br />lines are found about you, <br />and so I molded you more freely in my mind. <br />I molded you handsome and sentimental. <br />My art gives to your face <br />a dreamy compassionate beauty. <br />And so fully did I envision you, <br />that late last night, as my lamp <br />was going out -- I let go out on purpose -- <br />I fancied that you entered my room, <br />it seemed that you stood before me; as you might have been <br />in vanquished Alexandria, <br />pale and tired, idealistic in your sorrow, <br />still hoping that they would pity you, <br />the wicked -- who whispered "Too many Caesars."<br /><br />Constantine P. Cavafy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/caesarion/
