Expecting the Barbarians

What are we all waiting for,
Gathered together like this on the public square?

The Barbarians are coming today.
Why this air of listlessness in the Senate House?
Why have the Senators given up legislating?

The Barbarians arc coming today.
What would be the good of legislating?
When they come, the Barbarians will make the law.

Why has our Emperor got out of bed so early?
What is he doing at the city gates,
With his crown on his head and such a solemn expression?

The Barbarians are coming today.
The Emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a charter
Granting him honors and titles.

Why are our two consuls and our praetors
All got up in their embroidered scarlet robes?
Why are they covered with bracelets and rings?
What are they going to do with their precious staffs,
Wonderfully filigreed in silver and gold?

The Barbarians are coming today.
And such things impress the Barbarians.

Then why are our famous orators not here to make speeches
And display their usual fluency?

The Barbarians are coming today.
And the Barbarians do not appreciate fine phrases or long speeches.

Why, now, all of a sudden, this disturbance?
How solemn everybody’s face has suddenly become!
Why are the streets and the squares all emptying so quickly?
Why is everybody going home looking so blue?

Because night has fallen and the Barbarians have not come.
And some people have just got back from the frontiers
Who say there are no more Barbarians.

And now, without the Barbarians, what is to become of us?
After all, they would have been a kind of solution.