Robert Silverberg, Sailing to Byzantium (excerpts)

       ... 'You're so quiet all of a sudden, Charles,' said Gioia, who could not abide silence for very long. 'Will you talk to me? I want you to talk to me. Tell me what you're looking for out there.'

       He shrugged. 'Nothing.'

       'Nothing?'

       'Nothing in particular.'

       'I could see you seeing something.'

       'Byzantium,' he said. 'I was imagining that I could look straight across the water to Byzantium. I was trying to get a glimpse of the walls of Constantinople.'

       'Oh, but you wouldn't be able to see as far as that from here. Not really.'

       'I know.'

       'And anyway Byzantium doesn't exist.'

       'Not yet. But it will. Its time comes later on.'

       'Does it?' she said. 'Do you know that for a fact?'

       'On good authority. I heard it in Asgard,' he told her. 'But even if I hadn't, Byzantium would be inevitable, don't you think? Its time would have to come. How could we not do Byzantium, Gioia? We certainly will do Byzantium, sooner or later. I know we will. It's only a matter of time. And we have all the time in the world.'

       A shadow crossed her face. 'Do we? Do we?' ...

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       Cf. Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium (1927), Byzantium (1930) * A History of Byzantium * Aspects of Byzantium in Modern Popular Music * Byzantium & Modern Greece Resources  * Greek Orthodoxy - From Apostolic Times to the Present Day

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greeks-us/silverberg-sailingtobyzantium.asp