Those Necessary Barbarians

Amazing that a poem written a hundred years ago is still so relevant. Cavafy wrote this in 1898; in 1925, Hitler said, "The effectiveness of the truly national leader consists in preventing his people from dividing their attention, and keeping it fixed on a common enemy." One would think that a leader in the modern age would have evolved past this mindset, would have the education, imagination, and vision to achieve distinction without having to manufacture barbarians.

Waiting for the Barbarians

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are to arrive today.

Why such inaction in the Senate?
Why do the Senators sit and pass no laws?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
What laws can the Senators pass any more?
When the barbarians come they will make the laws.

Why did our emperor wake up so early,
and why does he sit at the greatest gate of the city,
on the throne, solemn, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
And the emperor waits to receive
their chief. Indeed he has even prepared
a scroll to give him. Therein he inscribed
many titles and names of honor.

Why have our two consuls and the praetors come out
today in their red, embroidered togas;
why do they wear amethyst-studded bracelets,
and rings with brilliant, glittering emeralds;
why are they carrying costly canes today,
wonderfully carved with silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today,
and such things dazzle the barbarians.

Why don't the worthy orators come as always
to make their speeches, to have their say?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today;
and they get bored with eloquence and orations.

Why this sudden unrest, this confusion.
(How solemn the faces have become).
Why are the streets and squares clearing quickly,
and all returning to their homes, so deep in thought?

Because night is here but the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the borders,
say there are no barbarians any longer.

And now what shall become of us without any barbarians?
They were, those people, some kind of solution.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1904)

Comments

[gypsy frocks]

I'd never read that. Besides being a great poem, it also tells me where J.M. Coetzee got the title for his equally great novel.

[Dangqgax]

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