Greece

I’m guessing most people my age don’t think a great deal about Greece having struggled for independence. Greece? Isn’t that the country of Sophocles, Socrates and Homer? Well, yes—but empires do fall, get taken over and then have to go through a lot to become their own entities again. The Hellenic Republic is no exception, and so on 25 March in 1821 Greece declared independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Greece fell to the Ottomans in 1453, and nearly four centuries on, their War of Independence continued from 1821 until 1829, with their 1821 declaration of independence officially recognised under the London Protocol in 1830.

Independence wasn’t the end of the story—in World War I the country fell to German forces, and then, after liberation, experienced a long-lasting civil war. In 1967, there was a coup d’etat, and from 1967 until 1974 Greece was under the control of a military junta. After the fall of this junta, Greece moved transitioned into democracy. In 1981 they became the tenth member of the European Union.

As a brief aside, looking at their current population estimate (a little over 11 million) I understand by Melbourne has the third largest Greek population in the world—after Athens and Thessoloniki. In my imagination, all European nations have large populations, probably because the countries have loomed large in my mind since childhood.

Choosing a poem to represent Greece was difficult solely from the point of view of asking myself the question: Cavafy’s “Waiting for the Barbarians,” or not Cavafy’s “Waiting for the Barbarians?” There are many other fine Greek poets, and many other wonderful Greek poems available in translation. I’m a big fan of Yannis Ritsos and Odysseas Elytis… but Cavafy is the poet who moves me most, and “Waiting for the Barbarians” is a monument not just of modern Greek poetry, but of 20th century poetry in general. Cavafy died in 1933, but his influence is still felt today. I still remember discovering this poem almost 10 years ago, and it still has the same effect on me. I found the text online here, but almost any anthology of modern poetry that includes translations will include this poem. Cavafy’s Collected Poems is really very easy to find—I’ve bought it twice.


Waiting for the Barbarians

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are due here today.

Why isn't anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?

Because the barbarians are coming today.
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.

Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting at the city's main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete 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,
and 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 come forward 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 restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home so lost in thought?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.

And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution.

—Constantine Cavafy
translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley