I beg for your opinion: is this relevant to the Repugs Agenda?

"Waiting for the Barbarians"



– What are we waiting for, assembled in the Forum?

The barbarians are to arrive today.

– Why then such inactivity in the Senate?
Why do the Senators sit back and do not legislate?
Because the barbarians will arrive today.
What sort of laws now can Senators enact?
When the barbarians come, they’ll do the legislating.

– Why is our emperor up and about so early,
and seated at the grandest gate of our city, upon the throne,
in state, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians will arrive today.
And the emperor expects to receive their leader.
Indeed, he has prepared to present him
with a parchment scroll. Thereon he has
invested him with many names and titles.

– Why have our two consuls and the praetors come out
today in their purple, embroidered togas;
why did they put on bracelets studded with amethysts,
and rings with resplendent, glittering emeralds;
why are they carrying today precious staves
carved exquisitely in gold and silver?

Because the barbarians will arrive today
and such things dazzle the barbarians.

– And why don’t our worthy orators, as always, come out
to deliver their speeches, to have their usual say?

Because the barbarians will arrive today;
and they get bored with eloquence and orations.

– Why has there suddenly begun all this commotion,
and this confusion? (How solemn people’s faces have become.)
Why are the streets and the squares emptying so swiftly,
and everyone is returning home in deep preoccupation?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some people have arrived from the frontiers,
and said that there are no barbarians anymore.

—

And now, what will become of us without barbarians?
Those people were some sort of a solution.


By Cavafy: 1898 Charles; Translated by Evangelos Sachperoglou’s

Charles Simic wrote what I believe about this poem and the USA: ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’, is still an apt description of any state that needs enemies, real or imaginary, as a perpetual excuse, the defenders capitulate morally even before the enemy shows up." I posted in GD-P first, but realized that was not the place. If you read this far I admire your mind. An interesting note: Cavafy read Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

And for saying thanks. I love that poem; and that translation is superb. I have not posted here in over 3 or 4 years (until a few days ago). I post poems for discussion. It has been so long that I figured no one would bother reading a strangers post. I posted in wrong forum at first. My mind should perk up soon. I love when I hear people like a poem: you made my day, even if no one else reads it.:hug:

Thanks for sharing. :applause:

These are the politics of hate and fear that one of our candidates is trying to fight against.

There are no Barbarians... nothing to fear but fear itself as they say.

It is fear that shackles the slave. The chains are simply decoration.

I agree with what you write. In my own life it has taken a difficult struggle to admit that what I were my "chains," were, in fact, "decorations" that I selected and wore with pride. I am not saying that sometimes chains are indeed chains and need to be broken.


Half an hour


I never had you, nor will I ever have you
I suppose. A few words, an approach
as in the bar yesterday, and nothing more.
It is, undeniably, a pity. But we who serve Art
sometimes with intensity of mind, and of course only
for a short while, we create pleasure
which almost seems real.
So in the bar the day before yesterday -- the merciful alcohol
was also helping much --
I had a perfectly erotic half-hour.
And it seems to me that you understood,
and stayed somewhat longer on purpose.
This was very necessary. Because
for all the imagination and the wizard alcohol,
I needed to see your lips as well,
I needed to have your body close.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1917)
I love this poem. I wish I wrote it.

political website, it's a place for people to share.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3064058&mesg_id=3064058