The Lanis you loved, Markos, isn't here <br />in this tomb you come to weep by, lingering hours on end. <br />The Lanis you loved is closer to you <br />when you're in your room at home and you look at his portrait— <br />the portrait that still keeps something of what was valuable in him, <br />something of what it was you used to love. <br /> <br />Remember, Markos, that time you brought in <br />the famous Kyrenian painter from the Proconsul's palace? <br />What artistic subtlety he used trying to persuade you both, <br />the minute he saw your friend, <br />that he absolutely must do him as Hyacinth. <br />In that way his portrait would come to be better known. <br /> <br />But your Lanis didn't hire out his beauty like that: <br />reacting strongly, he told him to portray <br />neither Hyacinth nor anyone else, <br />but Lanis, son of Rametichos, an Alexandrian.<br /><br />Constantine P. Cavafy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tomb-of-lanis/
