Better die free than live a slave

Cavafy's Satrapy

Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi: Eugène Delacroix, 1826

Cavafy's poem "Satrapy" is set in a historical framework, that of an ancient Athenian citizen (5th century BC) being co-opted by the Persian Empire of Artaxerxes. It's a metaphor for someone ruining their life for the sake of gain. 

The satrapy, a Persian provincial governorship, represents the spiritually empty role to which an artist or thinker betrays his true aspirations. The Athenian who accepts it will secretly despair, since what he craves is the praise of the people (dêmos) and the Sophists (intellectuals and teachers), the vibrant public forums of democratic Athens, and the crowns of laurel that symbolise achievement in a free society. The title "Satrapy" may as well say "Slavery".

Satrapy

What a misfortune, seeing as you’re made
for actions that are fine and glorious,
that this unjust, unhappy fate of yours
gives no encouragement, blocks your success;
a shame that petty habits hinder you,
and narrow-mindedness and apathy.
And dreadful is the day when you give in
(the day when you give in and yield to fate)
and head away to Susa on the road
and go to Artaxerxes, king of kings,
who graciously receives you in his court
with satrapies and such to offer you.
And you accept these things with mute despair,
these things you do not want and never sought.
Your spirit yearns and cries for other things:
the people’s plaudits and the Sophists’ praise,
the hard-won and inestimable “Well done”;
the agora, the theatre, the crowns.
For how will Artaxerxes give you these,
where will you find them in the satrapy,
and lacking them, what life will you endure?

Η Σατραπεία

Τι συμφορά, ενώ είσαι καμωμένος
για τα ωραία και μεγάλα έργα
η άδικη αυτή σου η τύχη πάντα
ενθάρρυνσι κ' επιτυχία να σε αρνείται·
να σ' εμποδίζουν ευτελείς συνήθειες,
και μικροπρέπειες, κι αδιαφορίες.
Και τι φρικτή η μέρα που ενδίδεις
(η μέρα που αφέθηκες κ' ενδίδεις,
και φεύγεις οδοιπόρος για τα Σούσα,
και πιαίνεις στον μονάρχην Αρταξέρξη
που ευνοϊκά σε βάζει στην αυλή του,
και σε προσφέρει σατραπείες και τέτοια.
Και σύ τα δέχεσαι με απελπισία
αυτά τα πράγματα που δεν τα θέλεις.
Αλλα ζητεί η ψυχή σου, γι' άλλα κλαίει·
τον έπαινο του Δήμου και των Σοφιστών,
τα δύσκολα και τ' ανεκτίμητα Εύγε·
την Αγορά, το Θέατρο, και τους Στεφάνους.
Αυτά πού θα στα δώσει ο Αρταξέρξης,
αυτά πού θα τα βρείς στη σατραπεία·
και τι ζωή χωρίς αυτά θα κάμεις.

Here read by George Voutsas, to the background music of the Allegretto of Beethoven's 7th Symphony.