Understanding

My younger days, my sensual life --
how clearly I see their meaning now.

What needless, futile regret...

But I didn't see the meaning of it then.

In the loose living of my early years
the impulses of my poetry were shaped,
the boundaries of my art were plotted.

That's why the regretting was so fickle.
And my resolutions to hold back, to change,
lasted two weeks at the most.

Constantine P. Cavafy

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