Stranger, I, a man of Samos, lie beside the Ganges.
On this thrice-barbarous earth,
I lived a life of pain, toil and lamentation.
This grave beside the river encloses many woes.
An insatiable longing for gold pushed me into cursed commerce.
The tempest cast me on the Indian coast
and I was sold as a slave.
I wore myself out up to old age, I labored breathless-deprived of a Grecian voice, and far from the shores of Samos.
Now, therefore, I suffer nothing horrible,
and do not march mourning to hades.
There I will be with my compatriots.
And henceforth I shall be conversing in Greek.
Cavafy