Two Young Men, 23 to 24 Years Old

Posted by T. Angel on 27/06/2014 · Deixe um comentário 

He’d been sitting in the café since ten-thirty expecting him to turn up any minute. Midnight went by, and he was still waiting for him. It was now after one-thirty, and the café was almost deserted. He’d grown tired of reading newspapers mechanically. Of his three lonely shillings only one was left: waiting that long, he’d spent the others on coffees and brandy. He’d smoked all his cigarettes. So much waiting had worn him out. Because alone like that for so many hours, he’d also begun to have disturbing thoughts about the immoral life he was living. But when he saw his friend come in— weariness, boredom, thoughts vanished at once. His friend brought unexpected news. He’d won sixty pounds playing cards. Their good looks, their exquisite youthfulness, the sensitive love they shared were refreshed, livened, invigorated by the sixty pounds from the card table. Now all joy and vitality, feeling and charm, they went—not to the homes of their respectable families (where they were no longer wanted anyway)— they went to a familiar and very special house of debauchery, and they asked for a bedroom and expensive drinks, and they drank again. And when the expensive drinks were finished and it was close to four in the morning, happy, they gave themselves to love. © David Hockney (1966)

Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard

(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)

– Original Greek Poem

Filed under Blog · Tagged with C.P. Cavafy, David Hockney, Gay, Ilustração, Poesia