The First Step
The young poet Eumenes
complained one day to Theocritus:
“I have been writing for two years now
and have done only one idyll.
It is my only finished work.
Alas, it is steep, I see it,
the stairway of poetry is so steep;
and from the first step where I now stand,
poor me, I shall never ascend.”
“These words,” Theocritus said,
“are unbecoming and blasphemous.
And if you are on the first step,
you ought to be proud and pleased.
Coming as far as this is not little;
what you have achieved is great glory.
For even this first step
is far from the distant common herd.
To set your foot upon this step
you must rightfully be a citizen
of the cities of ideas.
And in that city it is hard
and rare to be naturalized.
In her marketplace you find Lawmakers
whom no adventurer can dupe.
Coming as far as this is not little;
what you have achieved is great glory.”
by C.P. Cavafy
from The Complete Poems of Cavafy
Harvest Books, 1961
translation: Rae Dalven