let me be fooled by delusions

At least let me be fooled by delusions, now; 

so I might not feel my empty life. 

 

And I was so close so many times. 

And how I froze, and how I was afraid; 

why should I remain with lips shut tight; 

while within me weeps my empty life, 

and my longings wear their mourning black. 

 

To be, so many times, so close 

to the eyes, and to the sensuous lips, 

to the dreamed of, the beloved body. 

To be, so many times, so close. 

 

[C.P. Cavafy {1863-1933}, 'September of 1903', from Poems in Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets]