TWO YOUNG MEN TWENTY THREE
TO TWENTY FOUR YEARS OLD
He had been in the café since ten-thirty,
and was expecting him to show up anytime.
Midnight came—and he still waited.
One-thirty in the morning; and the cafe
was almost completely empty.
He got tired of reading newspapers
mechanically. From his three solitary shillings
he only had one left: he waited so long
he spent all the rest on coffees and cognacs.
He had smoked all his cigarettes.
All this waiting exhausted him. Because
he had been alone for hours, he began to
to be overwhelmed by disturbing thoughts
of his morally corrupt life.
But as he saw his friend coming in— at once
the tiredness, the boredom, the thoughts vanished.
His friend brought unexpected news.
He had won sixty pounds gambling.
Their handsome faces, their exquisite youth,
the sensual love they felt for each other
were refreshed, revived, invigorated
by the sixty pounds from the gambling house.
And full of joy and strength, feeling and beauty
they went—not to the homes of their honourable families
(where they were not welcomed anyway):
they went to a well-known to them very special
and friendly house of vice, and asked for a room,
and ordered expensive drinks, and they drank again.
And when the expensive drinks were gone,
and it was almost four in the morning
they gave themselves happily to love.
Manolis Aligizakis 