C. P. Cavafy Selected Poems

by Cavafy, Constantine P.; Sharon, Avi; Sharon, Avi; Sharon, Avi

• ISBN13: 9780141185613
• ISBN10: 0141185619
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-24
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

The spellbinding verse of one of the most distinctive poetic voices of the twentieth century Although the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy died in obscurity, today he is regarded as one of the most original of twentieth-century poets. Whether conjuring moments from Alexandria’s ancient past, lyrically evoking homosexual trysts, or painting exquisite miniatures of everyday life, his poems exude a striking inventiveness and staggering beauty, qualities that are preserved here in Avi Sharon’s sensitive translations.

Author Biography

Constantine Cavafy (1863-û1933) was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to Greek parents. He worked as a journalist and civil servant and only late in life began to find a receptive readership for his poems. A volume of his collected poetry was not published until after his death. Avi Sharon has taught classics and the humanities in New York, Boston, and Athens and has published translations in such journals as Partisan Review, Arion, and Dialogos.

Table of Contents

Poems 1897-1904
Voices	p. 3
Desires	p. 4
Candles	p. 5
An Old Man	p. 8
Prayer	p. 7
Old Men's Souls	p. 8
The First Step	p. 9
Interruption	p. 10
Thermopylae	p. 11
Che Fece ... II Gran Rifiuto	p. 12
The Windows	p. 13
Walls	p. 14
Waiting for the Barbarians	p. 15
Lies	p. 17
The Funeral of Sarpedon	p. 19
The Horses of Achilles	p. 21
Poems 1905-1915
The City	p. 25
The Satrapy	p. 26
The Wise Perceive Imminent Events	p. 27
The Ides of March	p. 28
Done	p. 29
The God Abandoning Antony	p. 30
Thodotus	p. 31
Monotony	p. 32
Ithaca	p. 33
As Much As You Can	p. 35
Trojans	p. 36
King Demetrius	p. 37
The Glory of the Ptolemies	p. 38
The Procession of Dionysus	p. 39
The Battle of Magnesia	p. 40
The Displeasure of the Seleuad	p. 41
Orophemes	p. 42
Alexandrian Kings	p. 44
Philhellene	p. 46
The Footsteps	p. 47
Heredes Atticus	p. 48
Tyanian Sculptor	p. 49
The Tomb of the Grammarian Lysias	p. 50
The Tomb of Eurion	p. 51
That's the Man!	p. 52
Dangerous Things	p. 53
Manuel Comnenus	p. 54
In Church	p. 55
Very Seldom	p. 56
Of the Shop	p. 57
Painted Things	p. 58
Morning Sea	p. 59
Ionic	p. 60
The Cafe Entrance	p. 61
One Night	p. 62
Return	p. 63
Far Away	p. 64
He Vows	p. 65
I Left	p. 66
Chandelier	p. 67
Poems 1916-1918
Since Nine O'Clock	p. 71
Insight	p. 72
Before the Statue of Endymion	p. 73
Envoys from Alexandria	p. 74
Aristobulus	p. 75
Caesarian	p. 77
Nero's Deadline	p. 78
In the Seaport	p. 79
One of Their Gods	p. 80
The Tomb of Lanes	p. 81
The Tomb of Iases	p. 82
In a Town of Osroene	p. 83
The Tomb of Ignatius	p. 84
In the Month of Athyr	p. 85
For Ammones, Who Died at Twenty-nine, in the Year 610	p. 86
Aemilianus Monai, Alexandrian, AD 628-655	p. 87
When They Come Alive	p. 88
Pleasure	p. 89
I Have Gazed So Much	p. 90
In the Street	p. 91
The Tobacconist's Window	p. 92
The Passage	p. 93
In the Evening	p. 94
Grey	p. 95
Beside the House	p. 96
The Next Table	p. 97
Remember, Body	p. 98
Days of 1901	p. 99
Poems 1919-1933
The Afternoon Sun	p. 103
To Live	p. 104
Of the Jews, AD 50	p. 105
Imenos	p. 106
On the Ship	p. 107
Of Demetrius Soter (162-150 BC)	p. 108
If Indeed Dead	p. 110
Young Men of Sidon (AD 400)	p. 111
That They May Come	p. 112
Darius	p. 113
Anna Comnena	p. 115
Byzantine Aristocrat, in Exile, Composing Verses	p. 116
Their Beginning	p. 117
The Favourite of Alexander Balas	p. 118
The Melancholy of jason Cleander, Poet in Commagene, AD 595	p. 119
Demaratus	p. 120
I Have Brought to Art	p. 122
From the School of the Renowned Philosopher	p. 123
Craftsman of Wine Bowls	p. 124
For Those Who Fought in the Achaean League	p. 125
To Antiochus Epipbanes	p. 126
In an Old Book	p. 127
In Despair	p. 128
Julian, Seeing the Contempt	p. 129
Epitaph of Antiochus, King of Commagene	p. 130
Theatre of Sidon (AD 400)	p. 131
Julian in Nicomedia	p. 132
Before Time Could Change Them	p. 133
He Came to Read	p. 134
The Year 31 BC in Alexandria	p. 135
John Cantacuzenus Has the Upper Hand	p. 136
Temethus, Antiochian, AD 400	p. 137
Of Coloured Glass	p. 138
In the Twenty-fifth Year of His Life	p. 139
On Italy's Coast	p. 140
The Dreary Village	p. 141
Apollonius of Tyana in Rhodes	p. 142
The Illness of Cleitus	p. 143
In a Town of Asia Minor	p. 144
Priest at the Serapeion	p. 145
In the Bars	p. 146
A Great Procession of Clergy and Laymen	p. 147
Scholar Departing Syria	p. 148
Julian and the Antiochians	p. 149
Anna Dalassena	p. 150
Days of 1896	p. 151
Two Young Men, Twenty-three to Twenty-four Years Old	p. 152
Greek Since Antiquity	p. 154
Days of 1901	p. 155
You Did Not Understand	p. 156
A Young Writer - in His Twenty-fourth Year	p. 157
In Sparta	p. 158
Picture of a Young Man of Twenty-three, Painted by his Friend of the Same Age, an Amateur	p. 159
In a Large Greek Colony, 200 BC	p. 160
A Prince from Western Libya	p. 162
Cimon, Son of Learchos, Twenty-two Years of Age, Student of Greek Literature (in Cyrene)	p. 163
On the March to Sinope	p. 164
Days of 1909, 1910 and 1911	p. 165
Myres: Alexandria, AD 340	p. 166
Alexander Jannaeus and Alexandra	p. 169
Lovely Flowers, White Ones, That Matched So Well	p. 170
Come, O King of the Lacedaemonians	p. 171
In the Same Space	p. 172
The Mirror in the Entrance Hall	p. 173
He Asked About the Quality	p. 174
They Should Have Taken the Time	p. 175
Following the Recipes of Ancient Greco-Syrian Magicians	p. 177
In the Year 200 BC	p. 178
Days of 1908	p. 180
In the Environs of Antioch	p. 182
Nares	p. 185
Index of Titles	p. 211
Index of First Lines	p. 216
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