C.P.Cavafy

Seventy-Three
 
(After C. P. Cavafy's ‘Η διορία του Νέρωνος’,
based upon an anecdote in Suetonius's Life of Nero)
 
He gave a careless shrug when he had heard
The Delphic Oracle’s prophetic word:
“Beware, my lord, the age of seventy-three”
(For Delphi was renowned for verity).
“I’m thirty now with years to plan for knives
Before the gods’ appointed day arrives.”
Reclining in his litter, bound for home,
Delighted Nero journeyed back to Rome.
 
When he returned, he felt a little drained;
With news like this, how could he be restrained?
Surrendering to pleasure on the way —
To gardens and gymnasia by day,
By night to dance and poetry and drink
In torchlit theatres where bodies slink
Whose dancing ever animates and soothes,
The naked bodies of Achaean youths.
 
Thus Nero rests, while on an arid plain
Far to the west of Rome, in distant Spain,
Old Galba drills his legions secretly,
Old Galba who was spry for seventy-three.

Drew Nathaniel Keane

If you have any thoughts about this poem,  Drew Nathaniel Keane would be pleased to hear them