As far as I can work out, this poem by C.P. Cavafy is out of copyright. It seemsed appropriate to share it today:
Waiting for the Barbarians
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
Waiting for the Barbarians
The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn't anything going on in the senate?
Why are the senators sitting there without legislating?
Because the barbarians are coming today.
What's the point of senators making laws now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting enthroned at the city's main gate,
in state, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor's waiting to receive their leader.
He's even got a scroll to give him,
loaded with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't our distinguished orators turn up as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home lost in thought?
Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come.
And some of our men just in from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
Now what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.
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Piquant, given the circumstances.
Very……
On the subject of poetry I also recommend Brian Bilston’s excellent poem “Refugees”. Once you follow the instruction at the end it illustrates how identical wording can have diametrically opposite meanings depending on the context.
Thank you.
You reminded me of it.
Well yes. Hmm.
I read two relevant articles this week on why are the barbarians coming (or not). Both to do with (neo) Liberalism. Both worth reading.
https://aurelien2022.substack.com/p/is-that-it
Aurelian revisits themes already covered by “Late Societ Britain” by Innes – specifically that Liberalism was a moral free utopian project (given Innes’ comments this should be familiar).
The other is by Nate bear also covering Liberalism : https://www.donotpanic.news/p/liberalisms-death-rattle
this time with reference to the Gaza genocide.
Both articles show that Liberalism is finished – & if those that can see this don’t do summat – then the barbarians will be at the gate & it won’t be fun for anybody.
Folks we need to regain control.
I must catch up with Aurelian.
John Gray basically says the same in his book ‘The New Leviathans’ (2023).
He sees liberalism being saved only by reverting to it being in the service of others.
The current trajectory which he calls ‘hyper-liberalism’ and focussed too much on individualism is making an enemy of our futures. Liberalism is unbalanced and dangerous in its current state.
Aurelian’s latest, out today, is very good on this.
PSR, I agree (& have read New Leviathans). observation: 20th cent society has been designed to be atomised e.g. via housing – this reduces the collective impulse (& couple that to the gradual dismantling of other societal collectives – unions) . One outcome of this is falling populations (Italy is losing +/- 1 million native Italians per year). Relevant: some sections of society are less affected than others – as a friend observed, muslim famlies & extended families stick together and provide mutual support – vs liberalisms “every man for himself” & the ghastly Thatchers “there is no such thing as society”. Which leaves the open question: how the hell to get from where we are to somethign that meets (social) humans’ needs – without erm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClxJXLl82eY&list=RDClxJXLl82eY&start_radio=1
(btw – yup – that really was Robespierre as a child reading the loyal address to louis – & the song?: “Heads will Roll”).
Thanks. I can also highly recommend Aurelian’s essay. I have been cross posting it to all fellow travellers presently surviving in Trumpville.
This Cavafy poem is such a delight; in a dark humour vein. If I was entirely honest about the conclusions that I have so far been forced to confront from my lived experiences, I would have to admit that as far as I am concerned the Barbarians entered the Houses of Parliament to Murdochian trumpets of triumph c. 1979.
Thank you! A poem I’ve loved for a long time.
Not really relevant to the thread – but a poem I think you would also enjoy…
If only
If only I could get the same joy
From seeing a pigeon
That I get
From watching a heron
Stand gracefully still
In wide shallow river,
My life would be
Constant bliss
A1M near York
27 August 2025
I rather like pigeons.
They can turn out to be stock doves.
And collared doves have an appeal of their own.
Whilst turtle doves are exciting.
So pigeons? I see them as a gateway. But none the worse for that.
The original Greek poem will be well out of copyright. I understand it was published in 1904 and Cavafy died in 1933, over 90 years ago. Copyright is generally life plus 70 years.
I doubt it matters too much, as you have linked and credited the Poetry Foundation, but that specific English translation will likely have its own copyright from (it seems) the 1970s or 1990s. To quote them, “Translation Copyright © 1975, 1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Reproduced with permission of Princeton University Press.”
What do we do when the barbarians are coming? Or if they don’t? But perhaps they were here already all along?
Noted
Do you advise I take it down then when it is freely available on the web?
We are the barbarians. Collectively, and in part individually. I see the barbarian in myself, and try to keep it confined.
Thought: if your inner barbarian does escape, is it better its malice be directed close in, to a few, or as far out as possible, causing little if any harm to many?
Heard this a a folk session this weekend in Shrewsbury.
The Thieves Song (traditional)
(chorus)
Hark hark the dogs do bark
All the rogues have come to town
Some in rags and some in jags*
And some in velvet gowns
Don’t put your faith in rich men
‘though gold they have in store
Now they have a taste for it
They want it ten times more
Some do say that country men
Are the city’s blight
And they will rob the city gent
In some blind lane by night
Well I tell you that Jack in rags
Or lord with golden chain
It matters not how much they’ve got
They’ll rob you both the same
Yet you despise the beggar
Who cries out for every crust
And on the pin-striped wolf head
Bestow your faith and trust
And you put the biggest rogues of all
Your parliament within
Don’t despise a poor man
Because his coat is thin
Don’t treat a beggar as a thief
See him as a man
Likewise the earl but look beneath
Trust only where you can
’cause we meet with thieves
And eat with thieves and drink with thieves all day
And we dote on thieves
and vote for thieves
But still their games they play.
*probably a “posh” clothing reference