Constantine P. Cavafy（1863——1933），出生于埃及亚历山大一个希腊人家庭。一生完成了154首诗歌（与莎士比亚十四行诗数量相同）。生前很长一段时间默默无闻，去世后越发受到重视，被誉为20世纪初欧洲最伟大的希腊诗人之一。

希腊文手稿：

  






英文版翻译：

      An Old Man

At the noisy end of the café, head bent
over the table, an old man sits alone,
a newspaper in front of him.
 
And in the miserable banality of old age
he thinks how little he enjoyed the years
when he had strength, eloquence, and looks.
 
He knows he’s aged a lot: he sees it, feels it.
Yet it seems he was young just yesterday.
So brief an interval, so very brief.
 
And he thinks of Prudence, how it fooled him,
how he always believed—what madness—
that cheat who said: “Tomorrow. You have plenty of time.”
 
He remembers impulses bridled, the joy
he sacrificed. Every chance he lost
now mocks his senseless caution.
 
But so much thinking, so much remembering
makes the old man dizzy. He falls asleep,
his head resting on the café table.

完整154首诗歌英文版可移步：

http://www.cavafy.com/poems/list.asp?cat=1