Mortals, Gods, and the Wise

I just started reading the collected poems by C.P. Cavafy, and they are fantastic! I like his tendency to refer to events, people, texts outside of the normative historical narrative. So this Greek poet tends to prefer the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods to the classical. He tends to refer to the Greek world in Syria, Asia Minor, and Alexandria (his own birthplace) more so than Athens. The following is a poem he wrote inspired by Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana (particularly 8.7).

But Wise Men Apprehend What is Imminent

Mortal men perceive things as they happen.
What lies in the future the gods perceive,
full and sole possessors of all enlightenment.
Of all the future holds, wise men apprehend
what is imminent. Their hearing,

sometimes, in moments of complete
absorption in their studies, is disturbed. The secret call
of events that are about to happen reaches them.
And they listen to it reverently. While in the street
outside, the people hear nothing at all.

(trans. Daniel Mendolsohn)