<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=358700" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Days of 1908</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">That was the year when he stayed<br>Without work, for a living played<br>Cards, or backgammon; or borrowed and never paid.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He was offered a place at a small<br>Stationer’s, three pounds a month. It didn’t suit him.<br>It was not decent pay at all.<br>He refused it without hesitation;<br>He was twenty-five, and of good education.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Two or three shillings he made, more or less.<br>From cards and backgammon what could a boy skim;<br>At the common places, the cafés of his grade,<br>Although he played sharply, and picked stupid players.<br>As for borrowing, that didn’t always come off.<br>He seldom struck a dollar, oftener he’d fall<br>To half, and sometimes as low as a shilling.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sometimes, when he got away from the grim<br>Night-sitting, for a week at a time or more,<br>He would cool himself at the baths, with a morning swim.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The shabbiness of his clothes was tragical.<br>He always wore the same suit, always displayed<br>A suit of cinnamon brown discoloured and frayed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O summer days of nineteen hundred and eight, I recall<br>The picture of you, and out of it seems to fade,<br>Harmoniously, that cinnamon suit discoloured and frayed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The picture of you has preserved him<br>Just as he would take off, would fling down<br>The unworthy clothes, the mended under clothes,<br>And remain all naked; faultlessly beautiful; a wonder.<br>Uncombed and lifted up his hair was;<br>His limbs a little sunburnt<br>From the morning nakedness at the baths and on the beach.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Constantine+P.+Cavafy">Constantine P. Cavafy</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=358700" data-title="Days of 1908 de Constantine P. Cavafy" data-description="That was the year when he stayed Without work, for a living played Cards, or backgammon; or borrowed and never paid. He was offered a place at a small Stationer’s, three pounds a month. It didn’t suit him. It was not decent pay at all. He ref..."></div> </div> </div>

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