After C.P. Cavafy
Ink on five sheets of Chinese paper, total 16 x 60 inches
Your Lovely World by C.P. Cavafy
The mirror is not deceiving me, the image is true,
no other girl on earth is as beautiful as I.
My body is graceful, they praise my foot,
my snow-white hands and neck, my silken hair...
Had I been born Christian, I should be free
to show myself to all, by night and by day;
and admiring men, envious women,
seeing my beauty, both would confess, in agreement,
that nature will not produce another girl like me.
Every time I would pass in an open carriage,
the streets of Istanbul would be jammed with people so that each would see me go by.