55 quotes
People of Kommagini, let the glory of Antiochos,
the noble king, be celebrated as it deserves.
You won't find a new country, won't find another shore.
This city will always pursue you.
When setting out upon your way to Ithaca,
wish always that your course be long,
full of adventure, full of lore.
Don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now,
work gone wrong, your plans
all proving deceptive — don’t mourn them uselessly.
Collected Poems (1992)
Later, in a more perfect society,
someone else made just like me
is certain to appear and act freely.
Collected Poems (1992)
The empire is delivered at last.
The vile, the appalling Julian
reigns no longer.
Collected Poems (1992)
If you are one of the truly elect,
be careful how you attain your eminence.
Collected Poems (1992)
The almighty gods ought to have taken the trouble
to create a fourth, a decent man.
I would gladly have gone along with him.
To Have Taken The Trouble (1930)
And in Spain Galba
secretly musters and drills his army —
Galba, the old man in his seventy-third year.
Collected Poems (1992)
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?The barbarians are due here today.
Waiting for the Barbarians (1904)
On hearing about powerful love, respond, be moved
like an aesthete. Only, fortunate as you’ve been,
remember how much your imagination created for you.
Collected Poems (1992)
The Spartans weren't to be led
and ordered around
like precious servants.
In The Year 200 B.C (1931)
Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?
Waiting for the Barbarians (1904)
Bid farewell to her, to Alexandria, whom you are losing.
That's certainly one point of view. Quite understandable.
In The Year 200 B.C (1931)
Honor to those who in the life they lead
define and guard a Thermopylae.
Collected Poems (1992)
Speak not of guilt, speak not of responsibility.
Now what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.
Waiting for the Barbarians (1904)
Of what’s to come the wise perceive
things about to happen.
Collected Poems (1992)
Its councils are full of Legislators
no charlatan can fool.
Collected Poems (1992)