WHEN THEY EMERGE

               See if you can hold on to them, poet,
               those fantasies of love being made
               —if any are even the kind that can be named.
               Look, they’re only half hidden by these lines;
               go on, poet, take them
               whenever, to your mind, they emerge,
               late at night, perhaps, or in the flame of day.

…..

Translated by Constantine Contogenis from the Greek of Constantine P Cavafy, and found in the book OUR CAVAFY: Greek translations of the poety of Constantine P Cavafy translated by Constantine Contogenis (Finishing Line Press) at https://finishinglinepress.com/product/our-cavafy-by-constantine-contogenis/

Constantine Contogenis, poet and translator, was a finalist for 2024 Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize. His poetry chapbook, Between One Thing and Its Other, is forthcoming (Finishing Line Press, 2026). His first collection, Ikaros (Word Press, 2004), won a First Prize “Open Voice Poetry Award,” Writer’s Voice. Co-translated Songs of the Kisaeng: Courtesan Poetry of Last Korean Dynasty (BOA Editions, 1997). Included in Joining Music with Reason: 34 Poets, British and American: Oxford 2004-2009, chosen by Christopher Ricks (Waywiser, 2011), and Pomegranate Seeds: Anthology of Greek-American Poetry, ed. Dean Kostos (Somerset Hall, 2008). Published by numerous journals and PSA’s Poetry in Motion.