CEASARION
Partly to clarify an era,
partly to pass the time
last night, I picked up and read
a collection of Ptolemaic epigraphs.
The plentiful praises and the flatteries
are the same for everybody. Everyone is brilliant,
glorious, mighty, and altruistic;
and their every enterprise is the wisest.
If you talk about the women of the era, even they,
all Berenices and Cleopatras, are admirable.
When I managed to verify some historical facts
I would have put the book down, but for a small
meaningless comment about the king, Caesarion
that at that moment caught my attention…
Ah, look, you came with your vague
charm. In history, just a few
lines are found about you,
so I could create you more freely in my mind.
I made you handsome and full of emotions.
My art gives your features
a dreamy likeable beauty.
And I so completely imagined you,
that late last night, when my lamp
went out—I let it go out on purpose—
I thought that you entered my room,
it appeared that you stood in front of me; as if
you were pale and tired in the conquered
Alexandria, idealistic in your sorrow,
hoping that they would pity you,
the corrupt—who whispered “too many Caesars”.
Libros Libertad 