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“Walls” by Constantine P. Cavafy 🇬🇷 (29 Apr 1863 – 29 Apr 1933)
Translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard
Without consideration, without pity, without shame
they have built great and high walls around me.
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And now I sit here and despair.
I think of nothing else: this fate gnaws at my mind;
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for I had many things to do outside.
Ah why did I not pay attention when they were building the walls.
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But I never heard any noise or sound of builders.
Imperceptibly they shut me from the outside world.