The Life of Constantine Cavafy

Constantine Cavafy was born in Alexandria on April 29 1863 and died on his birthday from cancer of the larynx in 1933. Cavafy was the youngest of nine children and in 1872, two years after his father’s death, he and his family move to England where they remain for the following six years and then he returns to Egypt. In 1882 they move to Constantinople during the Egyptian rebellion against the British and return to Alexandria in 1885 where he lived for the rest of his life. He enjoyed the singular experience of life offered by the Greek community, away from the influence exercised by the literary circles of Athens’ powerful personality Palamas, a leading figure of the New Athenian School and the generation of 1880. Through arduous studying he was able to gain a deep understanding of Greek history and literature (especially of the Hellenistic period) as well as European literature. Although he chronologically belongs to the generation of 1880, his oeuvre has several modernistic elements and thus is considered the precursor of Greek modern poetry. He is one of the best known Greek poets abroad and most translated into foreign languages. His work has been an inspiration for many foreign poets and writers. One of his foremost admirers and friends was E.M. Forster, with whom the poet shared a bond of grateful solidarity, probably attributed to their both being homosexual.

Cavafy began to publish poems in 1891 but had been writing since 1884. His poetry can be divided into three phases; 1884-1894 is the early romance phase, 1894-1903 is the symbolism phase and 1903-1933 the poetic realism one. Cavafy distinguished his poems into three categories; historical, didactical/philosophical and sensual. Cavafy’s historical poems refer to hist...

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...e could have used να αγοράσεις ‘to buy’ instead but he does not. Mavrogordatos’ translation of this line is a tetrameter : “and must acquire good merchandise.” Dalven’s translation reads “and purchase fine merchandise.” In this translation Keeley and Sherrard do not attempt to reproduce any of the homonymous rhymes in the line, while also ignoring completely the rhythmical and orchestral effects that Cavafy’s language offers here. Staying on Keeley and Sherrard, in the same poem where the poet talks about the time that Odysseus will eventually moor ‘αράξει’ which is a stronger verb than ‘arriving’ which Keeley and Sherrard choose. They have not chosen to translate with precision and the word that they picked deliberately is not better than the one chosen by the poet himself. In Mavrogordato and Dalven, the translation reads ‘anchor’ which is what Cavafy intended.