Craftsman of Wine Bowls

On this wine bowl -pure silver,
made for the house of Herakleidis,
where good taste is the rule-
notice these graceful flowers, the streams, the thyme.
In the centre I put this beautiful young man,
naked, erotic, one leg still dangling
in the water. O memory, I begged
for you to help me most in making
the young face I loved appear the way it was.
This proved very difficult because
some fifteen years have gone by since the day
he died as a soldier in the defeat at Magnesia.

Constantine P. Cavafy

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