Synopses & Reviews
An extraordinary literary event. The collected works—including the previously unpublished final poems—of the greatest modern Greek poet, translated by the renowned critic, classicist, and award-winning author of
The Lost, and published simultaneously in two handsome volumes
.No modern poet brought so vividly to life the history and culture of Mediterranean antiquity; no writer dared break with such exquisite lyricism the early-twentieth-century taboos surrounding homoerotic desire; no poet before or since has so gracefully melded elegy and irony as the Alexandrian Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy (1863–1933). Now, after more than a decade of work and study, and with the exclusive cooperation of the Cavafy Archive in Athens, Daniel Mendelsohn is uniquely positioned to reveal the full extent of Cavafy’s genius. Here at last is the remarkable music of his poetry, and the rhymes, assonances, and rhythms of the original Greek that have eluded previous translators.
The more than 250 works in Collected Poems cover the vast sweep of Hellenic civilization from the Trojan War through Cavafy’s own lifetime. Powerfully moving, searching, and wise, Cavafy’s poetry and the stories he tells—whether advising Odysseus as he sets out for Ithaca, or portraying a doomed Marc Antony on the night of his death—brilliantly make the historical personal. He also explores, with striking universality, longing and loneliness, fate and loss, memory and identity, all with a profound, humane sympathy. Including an in-depth introduction by Mendelsohn and extensive commentary that situates the work in a rich historical, literary, and biographical context, the Collected Poems is also a revelatory window into classics and classical history.
Equally exciting is the publication of The Unfinished Poems—thirty nearly complete drafts that Cavafy left behind at the time of his death, which languished in the Cavafy Archive for six decades and have never before been translated into English. These astonishing texts—as evocative and lyrical as Cavafy’s finished work—and the introduction and commentary that augment them, provide a fascinating glimpse into the poet’s creative process and allow the reader to take part in a major literary discovery.
These splendid translations will stand as definitive, firmly establishing Cavafy’s place in the pantheon of the finest artists of the modern era.
Review
"Cavafy did not publish a book in his lifetime; he preferred to distribute his poems to a few close friends in pamphlets printed at his own expense, partly in order to avoid the corruptions of the marketplace. But long before Forster "discovered" him, he was consciously writing in a cosmopolitan tradition." (read the entire )
Synopsis
An extraordinary literary event: the simultaneous publication of a brilliant and vivid new rendering of C. P. Cavafys
Collected Poems and
the first-ever English translation of the poets thirty
Unfinished Poems, both featuring the fullest literary commentaries available in English—by the acclaimed critic, scholar, and award-winning author of
The Lost.No modern poet brought so vividly to life the history and culture of Mediterranean antiquity; no writer dared break, with such taut energy, the early-twentieth-century taboos surrounding homoerotic desire; no poet before or since has so gracefully melded elegy and irony as the Alexandrian Greek poet Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933). Now, after more than a decade of work and study, and with the cooperation of the Cavafy Archive in Athens, Daniel Mendelsohn—a classics scholar who alone among Cavafys translators shares the poets deep intimacy with the ancient world—is uniquely positioned to give readers full access to Cavafys genius. And we hear for the first time the remarkable music of his poetry: the sensuous rhymes, rich assonances, and strong rhythms of the original Greek that have eluded previous translators.
The more than 250 works collected in this volume, comprising all of the Published, Repudiated, and Unpublished poems, cover the vast sweep of Hellenic civilization, from the Trojan War through Cavafys own lifetime. Powerfully moving, searching and wise, whether advising Odysseus as he returns home to Ithaca or portraying a doomed Marc Antony on the eve of his death, Cavafys poetry brilliantly makes the historical personal—and vice versa. He brings to his profound exploration of longing and loneliness, fate and loss, memory and identity the historians assessing eye as well as the poets compassionate heart.
With its in-depth introduction and a helpful commentary that situates each work in a rich historical, literary, and biographical context, this revelatory new translation, together with The Unfinished Poems, is a cause for celebration—the definitive presentation of Cavafy in English.
About the Author
Daniel Mendelsohn’s previous books include The Elusive Embrace, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year, and The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, an international best seller that won the National Book Critics Circle Award among many other honors. Mr. Mendelsohn is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Book Critics Circle Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. He teaches at Bard College and lives in New York City and New Jersey.
Table of Contents
Introduction:
The Poet—Historian A Note on Pronunciation of Proper Names
i
PUBLISHED POEMS
Poems 1905—1915
The City
The Satrapy
But Wise Men Apprehend What Is Imminent
Ides of March
Finished
The God Abandons Antony
Theodotus
Monotony
Ithaca
As Much As You Can
Trojans
King Demetrius
The Glory of the Ptolemies
The Retinue of Dionysus
The Battle of Magnesia
The Seleucids Displeasure
Orophernes
Alexandrian Kings
Philhellene
The Steps
Herodes Atticus
Sculptor from Tyana
The Tomb of Lysias the Grammarian
Tomb of Eurion
That Is He
Dangerous
Manuel Comnenus
In the Church
Very Rarely
In Stock
Painted
Morning Sea
Song of Ionia
In the Entrance of the Café
One Night
Come Back
Far Off
He Swears
I Went
Chandelier
Poems 1916—1918
Since Nine-
Comprehension
In the Presence of the Statue of Endymion
Envoys from Alexandria
Aristobulus
Caesarion
Neros Deadline
Safe Haven
One of Their Gods
Tomb of Lanes
Tomb of Iases
In a City of Osrhoene
Tomb of Ignatius
In the Month of Hathor
For Ammon, Who Died at 29 Years of Age, in 610
Aemilian Son of Monaës, an Alexandrian, 628—655 A.D.
Whenever They Are Aroused
To Pleasure
Ive Gazed So Much-
In the Street
The Window of the Tobacco Shop
Passage
In Evening
Gray
Below the House
The Next Table
Remember, Body
Days of 1903
Poems 1919—1933
The Afternoon Sun
To Stay
Of the Jews (50 A.D.)
Imenus
Aboard the Ship
Of Demetrius Soter (162—150 B.C.)
If Indeed He Died
Young Men of Sidon (400 A.D.)
That They Come-
Darius
Anna Comnena
Byzantine Noble, in Exile, Versifying
Their Beginning
Favour of Alexander Balas
Melancholy of Jason, Son of Cleander: Poet in Commagene: 595 A.D.
Demaratus
I Brought to Art
From the School of the Renowned Philosopher
Maker of Wine Bowls
Those Who Fought on Behalf of the Achaean League
For Antiochus Epiphanes
In an Old Book
In Despair
Julian, Seeing Indifference
Epitaph of Antiochus, King of Commagene
Theater of Sidon (400 A.D.)
Julian in Nicomedia
Before Time Could Alter Them
He Came to Read-
The Year 31 B.C. in Alexandria
John Cantacuzenus Triumphs
Temethus, an Antiochene: 400 A.D.
Of Colored Glass
The 25th Year of His Life
On the Italian Seashore
In the Boring Village
Apollonius of Tyana in Rhodes
Cleituss Illness
In a Municipality of Asia Minor
Priest of the Serapeum
In the Taverns
A Great Procession of Priests and Laymen
Sophist Departing from Syria
Julian and the Antiochenes
Anna Dalassene
Days of 1896
Two Young Men, 23 to 24Years Old
Greek Since Ancient Times
Days of 1901
You Didnt Understand
AYoung Man, Skilled in the Art of the Word-
in His 24th Year
In Sparta
Portrait of a Young Man of Twenty-Three Done by His Friend of the Same Age, an Amateur
In a Large Greek Colony, 200 B.C.
Potentate from Western Libya
Cimon Son of Learchus, 22 Years Old, Teacher of Greek Letters (in Cyrene)
On the March to Sinope
Days of 1909, 10, and 11
Myres: Alexandria in 340 A.D.
Alexander Jannaeus, and Alexandra
Beautiful, White Flowers As They Went So Well
Come Now, King of the Lacedaemonians
In the Same Space
The Mirror in the Entrance
He Asked About the Quality-
Should Have Taken the Trouble
According to the Formulas of Ancient Greco-Syrian Magicians
In 200 B.C.
Days of 1908
On the Outskirts of Antioch
Poems Published 1897—1908
Contents of the Sengopoulos Notebook
Voices
Longings
Candles
An Old Man
Prayer
Old Mens Souls
The First Step
Interruption
Thermopylae
Che Fece . . . Il Gran Rifiuto
The Windows
Walls
Waiting for the Barbarians
Betrayal
The Funeral of Sarpedon
The Horses of Achilles
ii
REPUDIATED POEMS
(1886—1898)
Brindisi
The Poet and the Muse
Builders
Word and Silence
Sham-el-Nessim
Bard
Vulnerant Omnes, Ultima Necat
Good and Bad Weather
Timolaus the Syracusan
Athenas Vote
The Inkwell
Sweet Voices
Elegy of the Flowers
Hours of Melancholy
Oedipus
Ode and Elegy of the Streets
Near an Open Window
A Love
Remembrance
The Death of the Emperor Tacitus
The Eumenides Footfalls
The Tears of Phaëthons Sisters
Ancient Tragedy
Horace in Athens
Voice from the Sea
The Tarentines Have Their Fun
The Funeral of Sarpedon
iii
UNPUBLISHED POEMS
(1877?—1923)
The Beyzade to His Lady-Love
Dünya Güzeli
When, My Friends, I Was in Love . . .
Nichori
Song of the Heart
To Stephanos Skilitsis
Correspondences According to Baudelaire
[Fragment of an untitled poem]
“Nous Nosons Plus Chanter les Roses”
Indian Image
Pelasgian Image
The Hereafter
The Mimiambs of Herodas
Azure Eyes
The Four Walls of My Room
Alexandrian Merchant
The Lagids Hospitality
In the Cemetery
Priams March by Night
Epitaph
Displeased Theatregoer
Before Jerusalem
Second Odyssey
He Who Fails
The Pawn
Dread
In the House of the Soul
Rain
La Jeunesse Blanche
Distinguishing Marks
Eternity
Confusion
Salome
Chaldean Image
Julian at the Mysteries
The Cat
The Bank of the Future
Impossible Things
Addition
Garlands
Lohengrin
Suspicion
Death of a General
The Intervention of the Gods
King Claudius
The Naval Battle
When the Watchman Saw the Light
The Enemies
Artificial Flowers
Strengthening
September of 1903
December 1903
January of 1904
On the Stairs
In the Theatre
Poseidonians
The End of Antony
27 June 1906, 2 P.M.
Hidden
Hearing of Love
“The Rest Shall I Tell in Hades to Those Below”
Thats How
Homecoming from Greece
Fugitives
Theophilus Palaeologus
And I Got Down and I Lay There in Their Beds
Half an Hour
House with Garden
A Great Feast at the House of Sosibius
Simeon
The Bandaged Shoulder
Coins
It Was Taken
From the Drawer
Prose Poems
The Regiment of Pleasure
Ships
Clothes
Poems Written in English
[More Happy Thou, Performing Member]
Leaving Therápia
Darkness and Shadows
Notes
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Index of Titles