The young poet Eumenes complained
\nto Theocritus one day:
\n\u2018Two years have passed since I began to write,
\nand all I’ve composed is just one idyll.
\nIt is my only completed work.
\nAlas, it’s high, so I see,
\nthe stairway of Poetry is so very high;
\nand from the first step, where I stand,
\nmiserable me, I\u2019ll never climb higher.\u2019
\nTheocritus said: \u2018These words
\nare blasphemous and unbecoming.
\nEven though you stand on the first step,
\nyou still ought to be proud and happy.
\nTo have come so far is no small matter;
\nto have done so much is great glory.
\nFor even this first step is still
\nby far above the common people.
\nIn order to set foot upon this step,
\nyou must be in your own right
\na citizen in the city of ideas.
\nIt is both difficult and rare
\nto be made a citizen of that city.
\nIn its agora you come across Lawgivers
\nthat cannot be deceived by any opportunist.
\nTo have come so far is no small matter;
\nto have done so much is great glory.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2014Constantin Cavafy, The First Step<\/em> (tr. Evangelos Sachperoglou)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","micropost_tag":[],"class_list":["post-18454","micropost","type-micropost","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/micropost\/18454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/micropost"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/micropost"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"micropost_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/micropost_tag?post=18454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}