Whereas the Wise What’s Coming

The secret cry comes to them, of events fast-nearing — so they write protest songs

Whereas the Wise What’s Coming

"For gods the future, men current happenings
whereas the wise things near at hand perceive."
—Filostratus, Apollonius of Tyana, VIII, 7

Men know current events.
Future happenings are known by gods,
fully and alone owners of all the light.
From the future the wise may grasp what's
near at hand. Their hearing

sometimes in moments of earnest exertion
is troubled. The secret cry
comes to them, of events fast-nearing.
And devoutly they mind it. While in the streets
outside, the people hear nothing.

— C.P. Cavafy
(translated from the Greek by Eva H.D.)

photo: Athens auguring, August 2023

Cavafy fan Leonard Cohen remarks accurately in this 1992 anthem that, “Things are gonna slide/ Slide in all directions.” Unfortunately, his sardonic injunction to “Take the only tree that's left, and stuff it up the hole /in your culture” appears to have been widely mistaken for public policy advice.

Meanwhile, Phil Ochs called this song, sung by Barry McGuire and written by P.F. Sloan, “terrible.” Even the wise have their lapses.

And on that note, here is an excellent list of one hundred protest songs, including ones sung by Ochs and McGuire, as well as the Isley Brothers, Fugazi, the Linda Lindas, and Boots Riley’s the Coup, courtesy of Rolling Stone, and indirectly, the military-industrial complex.