The God Abandons Antony

Translated by Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard

At midnight, when suddenly you hear

an invisible procession going by

with exquisite music, voices,

don't mourn your luck that's failing now,

work gone wrong, your plans

all proving deceptive — don't mourn them uselessly:

as one long prepared, and full of courage,

say goodbye to her, to Alexandria who is leaving.

Above all, don't fool yourself, don't say

it was a dream, your ears deceived you:

don't degrade yourself with empty hopes like these.

As one long prepared, and full of courage,

as is right for you who were given this kind of city,

go firmly to the window

and listen with deep emotion,

but not with the whining, the pleas of a coward;

listen — your final pleasure — to the voices,

to the exquisite music of that strange procession,

and say goodbye to her, to the Alexandria you are losing

Notes:

Written November 1910.

Published April 1911.

The title is a quotation from Plutarch's Life of Antony, 75.