Kōnstantinos Petrou Kabaphēs

"C. P. Cavafy (1863-1933) has written some of the most powerful poems in history. His work uncannily translates history, the record of the many, into an individual personal document. Though Cavafy is wickedly satirical, many of his poems are located in a landscape of intimacy. Drawing on the spectrum of ancient Greek poetic tradition, his poetry is still internal, whether his speaker is a spoiled rich boy who plans to enter politics or a poor, ostracized, pure and beautiful young man destroyed by poverty and priggish social mores." "In these glimmering and lyrical translations, with an introduction and scholarly endnotes co-written with Willis Barnstone, Aliki Barnstone has been faithful to the original Greek, capturing both Cavafy's song and his vernacular in ways neglected in previous translations. Paying close attention to tone and diction, she has employed her well-tuned poet's ear, making Cavafy's verse breathe new music in English."--Jacket.

Though not published until after his death in 1933, the poetry of C.P. Cavafy has come to be recognized as having a unique and fundamental influence upon modern literature. Much of Cavafy's verse explores the history and culture of his Alexandria, often in the context of his own uneasy relationship with its contemporary incarnation. In a sensual, meditative, sometimes playfully didactic style all his own, Cavafy reflects upon the "myth" of Alexandria and the ironies of its entanglement with his own existence and memories. In this most recent volume in the Essential Poets Series, editor Edmund Keeley has gathered together the poems for which Cavafy has come to be regarded as one of the most important and influential poets of the twentieth century. In addition, Keeley has provided readers with an insightful introduction and biography of the poet.

Cavafy, the foremost modern Greek poet, is a master at presenting a scene, an intense feeling, or an idea in direct, unornamented verse. Many of the poems are openly homosexual. Sixty-three newly translated poems have been added to the widely praised edition which includes the classic poem "Ithaca." Introduction by W.H. Auden. Translated by Rae Dalven.

Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933) is arguably the most important modern poet of Greece and Greek culture. This book collects Cavafy's more interesting prose pieces and translates those that originally appeared in Greek.

This volume is a complete edition in English of Cavafy's mature poetry. Included are some one hundred seventy-five poems in a translation that captures Cavafy's natural, idiomatic use of language and preserves the immediacy of his frank treatment of homosexual themes, his commitment to Hellenism, and his astute political cynicism. The notes by George Savidis comment on the date of each poem's composition, on any striking metrical arrangement, and on mythological and historical allusions. Also included are biographical and bibliographical notes.