Product Description

C. P. Cavafy (1863-1933) lived in relative obscurity in Alexandria, and a collected edition of his poems was not published until after his death. Now, however, he is regarded as the most important figure in twentieth-century Greek poetry, and his poems are considered among the most powerful in modern European literature. Here is an extensively revised edition of the acclaimed translations of Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, which capture Cavafy's mixture of formal and idiomatic use of language and preserve the immediacy of his frank treatment of homosexual themes, his brilliant re-creation of history, and his astute political ironies. The resetting of the entire edition has permitted the translators to review each poem and to make alterations where appropriate. George Savidis has revised the notes according to his latest edition of the Greek text. About the first edition: "The best [English version] we are likely to see for some time."--James Merrill, The New York Review of Books "[Keeley and Sherrard] have managed the miracle of capturing this elusive, inimitable, unforgettable voice. It is the most haunting voice I know in modern poetry."--Walter Kaiser, The New Republic

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85180 in Books
• Published on: 1992-09-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780691015378
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Among the key books of our century and should be read by anyone who cares for poetry. -- Review

The Afternoon Sun
Aimilianos Monai, Alexandrian, A.d. 628-655
Alexander Jannaios And Alexandra
Alexandrian Kings
And I Lounged And Lay On Their Beds
Anna Dalassini
Anna Komnina
Antony's Ending
Apollonios Of Tyana In Rhodes
Aristovoulos
As Much As You Can (1)
At The Cafe Door
At The Theatre
The Bandaged Shoulder
The Battle Of Magnesia
Before The Statue Of Endymion
Before Time Altered Them
Body, Remember
Brain, Work Now As Well As You Can
But The Wise Perceive Things About To Happen
A Byzantine Nobleman In Exile Composing Verses
Candles
Chandelier
The City
Come Back
Come, O King Of The Lacedaimonians
Comes To Rest
Craftsman Of Wine Bowls
Dangerous Thoughts
Dareios
Days Of 1896
Days Of 1901
Days Of 1903
Days Of 1908
Days Of 1909, '10, And '11
December, 1903
Dimaratos
The Displeasure Of Selefkidis
Envoys From Alexandria
Epitaph Of Antiochos, King Of Kommagini
Exiles
The Favor Of Alexander Valas
The First Step
Following The Recipe Of Ancient Greco-syrian Magicians
The Footsteps
For Ammonis, Who Died At 29, In 610
For The Shop
From The School Of The Renowned Philosopher
The Funeral Of Sarpedon
The Glory Of The Ptolemies
The God Abandons Antony
Going Back Home From Greece
Gray
A Great Procession Of Priests And Laymen
Greek From Ancient Times
Growing In Spirit
Half An Hour
He Asked About The Quality
He Had Come There To Read
He Swears
Herodis Attikos
Hidden Things
The Horses Of Achilles
I Went
I've Brought To Art
I've Looked So Much
The Ides Of March
If Actually Dead
Imenos
In A Large Greek Colony, 200 B.c.
In A Town Of Osroini
In A Township Of Asia Minor
In Alexandria, 31 B.c.
In An Old Book
In Church
In Despair
In Sparta
In The Boring Village
In The Evening
In The Harbor-town
In The Month Of Athyr
In The Same Place
In The Street
In The Tavernas
In The Year 200 B.c.
Interruption
Ionic
Ithaka
John Kantakuzinos Triumphs
Julian And The Antiochians
Julian At The Mysteries
Julian In Nicomedia
Julian Seeing Contempt
Kaisarion
Kimon, Son Of Learchos, 22, Student Of Greek Literature
King Claudius
King Dimitrios
Kleitos' Illness
Long Ago
Longings
Lovely White Flowers
Manuel Komninos
Melancholy Of Jason Kleander, Poet In Kommagini, A.d. 595
The Mirror In The Front Hall
Monotony
Morning Sea
Myris: Alexandria, A.d. 340
Nero's Deadline
The Next Table
Of Colored Glass
Of Dimitrios Sotir (162-150 B.c.)
An Old Man
On An Italian Shore
On Board Ship
On Hearing Of Love
On The March To Sinopi
On The Outskirts Of Antioch
On The Stairs
One Night
One Of The Jews (a.d. 50)
One Of Their Gods
Orophernis
Outside The House
Passing Through
Philhellene
The Photograph
Picture Of A 23-year-old Painted By His Friend
Pictured
Poseidonians
Prayer
Priest At The Serapeion
A Prince From Western Libya
The Rest I Will Tell To Those Down In Hades
The Satrapy
Sculptor Of Tyana
September, 1903
Simeon
Since Nine O'clock
Sophist Leaving Syria
The Souls Of Old Men
Temethos, Antiochian, A.d. 400
That's The Man
Theatre Of Sidon (a.d. 400)
Their Beginning
Theodotos
Theophilos Palaiologos
Thermopylae
Things Ended
Those Who Fought For The Achaian League
To Antiochos Epiphanis
To Call Up The Shades
To Have Taken The Trouble
To Sensual Pleasure
Tomb Of Evrion
Tomb Of Iasis
Tomb Of Ignatios
Tomb Of Lanis
Tomb Of The Grammarian Lysias
Trojans
The Twenty-fifth Year Of His Life
Two Young Men, 23 T0 24 Years Old
Understanding
Unfaithfulness
Very Seldom
Voices
Waiting For The Barbarians
Walls
When The Watchman Saw The Light
When They Come Alive
The Window Of The Tobacco Shop
You Didn't Understand
Young Men Of Sidon (a.d. 400)
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Review
Among the key books of our century and should be read by anyone who cares for poetry.
(Washington Post Book World )

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek

Customer Reviews

Cavafy in Greek...
I own a copy of the original collection of Cavafy's poems (in Greek) and I find that this translation has measured up to the task of translating the forceful and sensual poetry as closely as possible. And for anyone who cannot read Greek, this book will bring you as close as possible to the intense emotional response of reading the original. A must have for any poetry lover.

Haunting, profound poems of antiquity, love and loss.
As with any poems translated from a language I have never learned, I am left wondering just how close Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard have come to the original style and substance of C.P. Cavafy, the great Alexandrian Greek poet of the early 20th century. (Keeley and Sherrard are scrupulous in their end notes, noting untranslatable words and the original rhyme schemes of poems translated into free verse.) Even in translation, these poems are exquisite, haunting both my dreams and my waking thoughts. Cavafy essentially had only a few subjects, but they were great ones--the lost glory of antiquity, the inevitable decline of the mighty, the death of love and beauty, the folly of human striving, the crucial importance of memory and history. In language of deceptive simplicity, he limned the ephemeral nature of beautiful things and the empty spaces their loss leaves in the soul. (Cavafy, openly gay at a time when homosexuality was truly the love that dare not speak its name, wrote only of lost, passing or unrequited love.) Most of these poems are very short, but they insinuate themselves inextricably into memory, such as "The Mirror in the Front Hall," depicting a handsome young man who stops to straighten his tie: "the old mirror was all joy now,/proud to have embraced/total beauty for a few moments." My own favorite in the book is one of the longer poems, "Orophernis," about a wastrel king of the 2nd Century B.C. who came to grief trying to be a real king for once. The final five lines of this poems are Cavafy in a nutshell; The figure on this four drachma coin, a trace of whose young charm can still be seen, a ray of his poetic beauty-- this sensuous commemoration of an Ionian boy, this is Orophernis, son of Ariarathis.

Absolutely wonderful!
Kavafy is the the perfect guide in our exploration of life. I reccommend this book highly. Edmund Keeley has done a wonderful job in bringing Kavafy's poetry to us.