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Quotes from Waiting for the Barbarians — Constantine P. Cavafy

1863–1933 Greece

← All quotes by Constantine P. Cavafy

4 quotes

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?The barbarians are due here today.

Waiting for the Barbarians (1904)

Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?

Waiting for the Barbarians (1904)

Now what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.

Waiting for the Barbarians (1904)

Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.

Waiting for the Barbarians (1904)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Constantine P. Cavafy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.