One candle is enough
To Call Up The Shades
One candle is enough. Its gentle light
will be more suitable, will be more gracious
when the Shades come, the Shades of Love.
One candle is enough. Tonight the room
should not have too much light. In deep reverie,
all receptiveness, and with the gentle light-
in this deep reverie I’ll form visions
to call up the Shades, the Shades of Love.
Constantine P. Cavafy (1920)
C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems, Translated by Edmund Keely and Philip Sherrard, Edited by George Savidis,, Chatto &Windus, London 1998
