Kavaphes's Waiting for the Barbarians is a remarkably simple poem that contains great irony in its brief stanzas. It is set in Rome or some similar, educated society. It speaks of barbarians who are supposedly coming to visit. ("What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are to arrive today.") The governing officials plan to accept them with gifts and such to promote peace between the two groups. ("And the emperor waits to receive their chief. Indeed he has prepared to give him a scroll. Therein he inscribed many titles and names of honor.")
These barbarians refer to uneducated, different people who supposedly threaten the educated society. That is why the governing officials are receiving them and giving them accolades. Throughout, the poem makes note of the shaky goodness of political rituals. ("Why have our two consuls and the praetors come out today in their red, embroidered togas; why do they wear amethyst-studded bracelets, and rings with brilliant, glittering emeralds; why are they carrying costly canes today, wonderfully carved with silver and gold?") It also condescends the practices of the barbarians- for example the judgement that they find orators boring. ("Because the barbarians are to arrive today; and they get bored with eloquence and orations") At the end, it is realized that there are no barbarians. ("Because night is here but the barbarians have not come. And some people arrived from the borders, and said that there are no longer any barbarians.") This leads to a realization. No longer are there primitive "threats" to the society. Every society needs an enemy to compare itself to, and without one, members of that society are forced to examine themselves. ("And now what shall become of us without any barbarians? Those people were some kind of solution.") The question is, who really are the barbarians? This forces the reader to look at the structure and ritual of his own society and look for the reason and justice of it.
The central message of the poem is basically that every society is predicated on certain principles and practices that are thought to be better than those of other societies. This rings true even today when many modernists believe that technological advancement and implementation will be the world's savior and that societies without them are primitive. This is not necessarily the case. What is ideal, or just, or beneficial is not found through comparison. We cannot simply examine our society in relation to that of those we consider barbarians. We must examine our societies by their own merits. Otherwise, as the poet's question asks, "What will become of us?"
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