Partly to throw light on a certain period, <br />partly to kill an hour or two, <br />last night I picked up and read <br />a volume of inscriptions about the Ptolemies. <br />The lavish praise and flattery are much the same <br />for each of them. All are brilliant, <br />glorious, mighty, benevolent; <br />everything they undertake is full of wisdom. <br />As for the women of their line, the Berenices and Cleopatras, <br />they too, all of them, are marvelous. <br /> <br />When I'd verified the facts I wanted <br />I would have put the book away had not a brief <br />insignificant mention of King Kaisarion <br />suddenly caught my eye... <br /> <br />And there you were with your indefinable charm. <br />Because we know <br />so little about you from history, <br />I could fashion you more freely in my mind. <br />I made you good-looking and sensitive. <br />My art gives your face <br />a dreamy, an appealing beauty. <br />And so completely did I imagine you <br />that late last night, <br />as my lamp went out—I let it go out on purpose— <br />it seemed you came into my room, <br />it seemed you stood there in front of me, looking just as you would have <br />in conquered Alexandria, <br />pale and weary, ideal in your grief, <br />still hoping they might take pity on you, <br />those scum who whispered: "Too many Caesars."<br /><br />Constantine P. Cavafy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/kaisarion/
