Constantine Cavafy - Revision history

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Biography

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'''Constantine P. Cavafy''', also known as '''Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis''', or '''Kavaphes''' (Greek '''Κωνσταντίνος Π. Καβάφης''') ([[April 29]], [[1863]] – [[April 29]], [[1933]]) was a [[Greece|Greek]] poet who is among the [[20th century]]'s most important literary figures, though he is relatively little known in the English speaking world; he also worked as a journalist and civil servant.

Cavafy has been interpreted as a skeptic. In some of his poetry he toyed with the notions of Christianity, patriotism and heterosexuality, though he was not always comfortable with his role as a nonconformist. He published 154 poems; dozens more remained incomplete or sketchy. His most important poems were written after his fortieth birthday.

==Biography==

Cavafy was born in [[Alexandria]], Egypt, to Greek parents. His father was a wealthy importer-exporter, however, when his father died in [[1870]], Cavafy and his family had to move to Liverpool, UK; he moved back to Alexandria in [[1882]].

The outbreak of riots there in [[1885]] meant the family had to move again, this time to [[Constantinople]]. In 1885 Cavafy moved back to Alexandria, where he lived for the rest of his life. He originally worked as a journalist, but then worked for the Egyptian Ministry of Public Works for thirty years. From 1891 to 1904 he published his poetry in broadsheet form for his close friends. He received acclaim mainly within the Greeks in Egypt. He was introduced to mainland Greek literary circles through a favourable review by Xenopoulos in 1903, but got little recognition, his style being very different from mainstream Greek poetry. Only 20 years later, after the Greek defeat in the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)]], a new generation of almost nihilist and suicidal poets (e.g. [[Karyotakis]]) would find inspiration in Cavafy's work. He died in [[1933]].

Since his death, Cavafy's reputation has grown, and he is now considered to be one of the finest modern Greek poets.

== Work ==

Cavafy was instrumental to the revival and recognition of [[Greek literature|Greek]] poetry both at home and abroad. His poems were typically concise but intimate portraits of real or literary individuals and societies that played a role in Greek culture. Uncertainty about the future, sensual pleasures, the moral character and psychology of individuals and nostalgia are some of the defining themes. A recluse, he was virtually unknown until late in his life. Besides his subjects, unconventional for the time, his poems also exhibit a skilled and versatile craftsmanship, which is almost completely lost in translation. His poetry is now taught at schools in [[Greece]].

Cavafy's poem ''The God Abandons Antony'' (1911) was adapted by Leonard Cohen for the latter's song ''Alexandra Leaving'' (''Ten New Songs'', 2002) [http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/cavafy.html]. Where Cavafy's original focus was on the city of [[Alexandria]], Cohen's version concerns a man's loss of a woman, Alexandra.

==Bibliography==

Selections of Cavafy's poems appeared only in pamphlets, privately printed booklets and broadsheets during his lifetime. The first publication, in book form, was

*''Ποιήματα'' (''Poiimata'', or 'Poems of C.P. Cavafy') in Alexandria, 1935.

The most effective translation of Cavafy into English is by Rae Dalven. Robert Liddell's biography is the best known one in English, and an evocative, minor masterpiece in the [[genre]].

*''The Complete Poems of Cavafy'' translated by Rae Dalven

*''C. P. Cavafy: Collected Poems'' translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by [[George Savidis]]

*''Before Time Could Change Them: The Complete Poems of Constantine P.Cavafy'' translated by [[Theoharis C. Theoharis]]

*''Cavafy's Alexandria'' by Edmund Keeley

*''Cavafy: A Critical Biography'' by Robert Liddell

==External links==

*[http://cavafis.compupress.gr/index.htm ''A comprehensive website, including a biography, a gallery, bibliography, news and extensive selections of poetry in English and Greek'']
*[http://greece.poetryinternational.org/cwolk/view/18279 ''W. H. Auden's "Introduction to Cavafy´s poems"'']
*[http://www.uvm.edu/%7Esgutman/Cavafy.htm Audio introduction to Cavafy's poems] In English, with examination of ten of his finest poems
*[http://www.greece.org/alexandria/cavafy/cavafy2.htm ''The Cavafy Museum in Alexandria'']
*[http://d-sites.net/english/cavafy.htm ''Cavafy: surviving immortality'']
*[http://users.ox.ac.uk/~shil0124/poems/flowers.htm ''"Artificial Flowers" — translations by Peter J. King & Andrea Christofidou'']
*[http://users.hol.gr/%7Ebarbanis/cavafy/ ''Extensive collection of poems, in English & Greek & audio'']

[[Category:1863 births|Cavafy, Constantine P.]]
[[Category:1933 deaths|Cavafy, Constantine P.]]
[[Category:Poets|Cavafy, Constantine P.]]

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 Cavafy was born in [[Alexandria]], Egypt, to Greek parents. His father was a wealthy importer-exporter, however, when his father died in [[1870]], Cavafy and his family had to move to Liverpool, UK; he moved back to Alexandria in [[1882]].
-The outbreak of riots there in [[1885]] meant the family had to move again, this time to [[Constantinople]]. In 1885 Cavafy moved back to Alexandria, where he lived for the rest of his life. He originally worked as a journalist, but then worked for the Egyptian Ministry of Public Works for thirty years. From 1891 to 1904 he published his poetry in broadsheet form for his close friends. He received acclaim mainly within the Greeks in Egypt. He was introduced to mainland Greek literary circles through a favourable review by Xenopoulos in 1903, but got little recognition, his style being very different from mainstream Greek poetry. Only 20 years later, after the Greek defeat in the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)]], a new generation of almost nihilist and suicidal poets (e.g. [[Kostas Karyotakis]]) would find inspiration in Cavafy's work. He died in [[1933]].
+The outbreak of riots there in [[1885]] meant the family had to move again, this time to [[Constantinople]]. In 1885 Cavafy moved back to Alexandria, where he lived for the rest of his life. He originally worked as a journalist, but then worked for the Egyptian Ministry of Public Works for thirty years. From 1891 to 1904 he published his poetry in broadsheet form for his close friends. He received acclaim mainly within the Greeks in Egypt. He was introduced to mainland Greek literary circles through a favourable review by Xenopoulos in 1903, but got little recognition, his style being very different from mainstream Greek poetry. Only 20 years later, after the Greek defeat in the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)]], a new generation of almost nihilist and suicidal poets (e.g. [[Kostas Karyotakis]], [[Napoleon Lapathiotis]]) would find inspiration in Cavafy's work. He died in [[1933]].
 Since his death, Cavafy's reputation has grown, and he is now considered to be one of the finest modern Greek poets.

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 *''Ποιήματα''  (''Poiimata'', or 'Poems of C.P. Cavafy') in Alexandria, 1935.
-The most effective translation of Cavafy into English is by Rae Dalven. Robert Liddell's  biography is the best known one in English, and an evocative, minor masterpiece in the [[genre]].
+The most effective translation of Cavafy into English is by Rae Dalven. Robert Liddell's  biography is the best known one in English, and an evocative, minor masterpiece in the genre.
 *''The Complete Poems of Cavafy'' translated by Rae Dalven