The Complete Poems of C.P. Cavafy. Daniel Mendelsohn

      where, loudly and with considerable

      piety, he reads the holy Scriptures,

      and at his Christian reverence the people wonder.

      [1892?; 1924?; 1924]

       Before Time Could Alter Them

      They were very pained when they parted company.

      They themselves ­didn’t want it; it was just the way things were.

      The need to make a living was forcing one of them

      to go far away— New York or Canada.

      Certainly their love ­wasn’t the same as before;

      the attraction had been gradually diminished,

      its attraction had been very much diminished.

      But still, that they should part— that they ­didn’t want.

      It was just the way things were.— Or perhaps it was that Fate