3. In the Month of Athyr
Constantine P. Cavafy
In the Month of Athyr
I can just read the inscription on this ancient stone.
“Lo[r]d Jesus Christ”. I make out a “So[u]l”.
“In the mon[th] of Athyr” “Lefkio[s] went to sleep”.
Where his age is mentioned -“lived to the age of”-
the Kappa Zeta shows that he went to sleep a young man.
In the corroded part I see “Hi[m] … Alexandrian”.
Then there are three badly mutilated lines-
though I can pick out a few words, like “our tea[r]s”,
“grief”,
then “tears” again, and “sorrow to [us] his [f]riends”.
I think Lefkios must have been greatly loved.
In the month of Athyr Lefkios went to sleep.
Constantine P. Cavafy (1917)
Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrand
