[after Constantine Cavafy's poem, "In A Town Of
Osroini," trans. by Keeley and Sherrard]
Through a cunningly designed and constructed complex of
flues, mirrors, and glass enclosures embedded in the
lower walls and bottom of the shallow, infloor pool, the
water is kept warm to a consistent temperature, and
adequately illuminated so that, for example, when Remon
(entirely free of any intrusive inhibition imposed upon
him by old prudes, or the minor injuries inflicted upon
him by prejudiced haters), naked except for that pair of
sheer blue stockings that he cherishes, steps into the
shimmering water, his pulsating tumescence is not
deflated by the shock of a chill; nor is his beauty (as
it vivifies those stockings as well as the pool itself)
lost to or even obscured, when partly submerged (the
pool is not at all deep), to our eager and very delighted
observation. Once wet, the stockings seem more
translucent; the opacity of the doubled weave at his
heels and toes even more opaque . . . .
J-Called