Waiting for the barbarians

C.Cavafy

Waiting for the Barbarians

-What are we all waiting in the agora for ?
-The barbarians are to come today.
-Why such idleness and quiet in the Senate?
Why are the Senators not making new laws?
-'Cause the barbarians are to come today.
Why would the Senators make any more laws now?
When the barbarians come we'll anyway need new ones.
-Why is our Emperor up and about so early,
why is he waiting by our grandest gate,
upon his throne, officially, clad in his full regalia?
-'Cause the barbarians are to come today,
and the Emperor is waiting for their leader,
for whom he has scroll with grants of fiefs and honors.
-Why are both our Consuls and our Tribunes out,
wearing their very finest, gold-and-crimson togas
why do they carry bracelets replete with precious stones
why hold staffs of ebony and ivory intertwined, all
worked around with filigrees of silver and of gold?
-'Cause the barbarians are to come today,
and such displays of wealth bedazzle their kind!
-Well then why are the orators also not about,
to weave their magic on the throngs, and say their pieces?
-'Cause the barbarians are to come today,
and such flowery talking quickly bores them!
-And now, why now suddenly such confusion,
(Oh my, look how serious everyone just became!)
why is the gathering breaking up so quickly,
people going homeward fast, their faces troubled?
-It is because the sun has set, yet no barbarians came.
Instead, some bordermen came from the frontier
and told us there are no more barbarians to be found.
-Alas! What are we now to do without barbarians?
These people were a kind of solution.