C. P. Cavafy: Collected Poems: Bilingual Edition » (Bilingual)

Edmund Keeley is Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English, emeritus, and professor of creative writing, emeritus, at Princeton University. Philip Sherrard (1922-1995) was research fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford, and lecturer in the history of the Orthodox Church at King's College, London. George Savidis (1929-1995) was professor of modern Greek at the University of Thessaloniki and George Seferis Visiting Professor at Harvard University.

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. This revised bilingual edition of Collected Poems offers the reader the original Greek texts facing what are now recognized as the standard English translations of Cavafy's poetry. It is this translation that best captures the poet's mixture of formal and idiomatic language and that preserves the immediacy of his increasingly frank treatment of homosexual eroticism, his brilliant re-creation of history, and his astute political ironies. This new bilingual edition also features the notes of editor George Savidis and a new foreword by Robert Pinsky.

Peter Green - New Republic

At least as far as Cavafy's 'canon' of 154 sanctioned poems is concerned, it seems likely that the long-established version by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard . . . will continue, deservedly, to hold the field.

Foreword to the Bilingual Edition xv Translators' Note to the 1992 Revised Edition xxiii

"PUBLISHED POEMS"
Before 1911
WALLS (1896) 3
AN OLD MAN (1897) 5
THE HORSES OF ACHILLES (1897) 7
PRAYER (1898) 9
THE FUNERAL OF SARPEDON (1898) 11
CANDLES (1899) 15
THE FIRST STEP (1899) 17
THE SOULS OF OLD MEN (1901) 19
CHE FECE . . . IL GRAN RIFIUTO (1901) 21
INTERRUPTION (1901) 23
THE WINDOWS (1903) 25
THERMOPYLAE (1903) 27
UNFAITHFULNESS (1904) 29
WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS (1904) 31
VOICES (1904) 35
LONGINGS (1904) 37
TROJANS (1905) 39
KING DIMITRIOS (1906) 41
THE RETINUE OF DIONYSOS (1907) 43
MONOTONY (1908) 45
THE FOOTSTEPS (1909) 47
THAT'S THE MAN (1909) 49
THE CITY (1910) 51
THE SATRAPY (1910) 53

1911
THE IDES OF MARCH 55
THINGS ENDED 57
SCULPTOR OF TYANA 59
THE GOD ABANDONS ANTONY 61
IONIC 63
THE GLORY OF THE PTOLEMIES 65
ITHAKA 67
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS 71

1912
PHILHELLENE 73
HERODIS ATTIKOS 75
ALEXANDRIAN KINGS 77
COME BACK 79
IN CHURCH 81

1913
VERY SELDOM 83
AS MUCH AS YOU CAN 85
FOR THE SHOP 87
I WENT 89

1914
TOMB OF THE GRAMMARIAN LYSIAS 91
TOMB OF EVRION 93
CHANDELIER 95
LONG AGO 97

1915
BUT THE WISE PERCEIVE THINGS ABOUT TO HAPPEN 99
THEODOTOS 101
AT THE CAFE DOOR 103
HE SWEARS 105
ONE NIGHT 107
MORNING SEA 109
PICTURED 111
OROPHERNIS 113
THE BATTLE OF MAGNESIA 117
MANUEL KOMNINOS 119
THE DISPLEASURE OF SELEFKIDIS 121

1916
WHEN THEY COME ALIVE 123
IN THE STREET 125
BEFORE THE STATUE OF ENDYMION 127

1917
IN A TOWN OF OSROINI 129
PASSING THROUGH 131
FOR AMMONIS, WHO DIED AT 29, IN 610 133
ONE OF THEIR GODS 135
IN THE EVENING 137
TO SENSUAL PLEASURE 139
GRAY 141
TOMB OF IASIS 143
IN THE MONTH OF ATHYR 145
I'VE LOOKED SO MUCH. . . . 147
TOMB OF IGNATIOS 149
DAYS OF 1903 151
THE WINDOW OF THE TOBACCO SHOP 153

1918
KAISARION 155
BODY, REMEMBER. . . . 157
TOMB OF LANIS 159
UNDERSTANDING 161
NERO'S DEADLINE 163
ENVOYS FROM ALEXANDRIA 165
ARISTOVOULOS 167
IN THE HARBOR-TOWN 171
AIMILIANOS MONAI, ALEXANDRIAN, A.D. 628-655 173
SINCE NINE O'CLOCK 175
OUTSIDE THE HOUSE 177
THE NEXT TABLE 179

1919
THE AFTERNOON SUN 181
COMES TO REST 183
OF THE JEWS (A.D. 50) 185
IMENOS 187
ON BOARD SHIP 189
OF DIMITRIOS SOTIR (162-150 B.C.) 191

1920
IF ACTUALLY DEAD 195
YOUNG MEN OF SIDON (A.D. 400) 197
TO CALL UP THE SHADES 199
DAREIOS 201
ANNA KOMNINA 205

1921
A BYZANTINE NOBLEMAN IN EXILE COMPOSING VERSES 207
THEIR BEGINNING 209
THE FAVOR OF ALEXANDER VALAS 211
MELANCHOLY OF JASON KLEANDER, POET IN KOMMAGINI, A.D. 595 213
DIMARATOS 215
I'VE BROUGHT TO ART 219
FROM THE SCHOOL OF THE RENOWNED PHILOSOPHER 221
CRAFTSMAN OF WINE BOWLS 225

1922
THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR THE ACHAIAN LEAGUE 227
TO ANTIOCHOS EPIPHANIS 229
IN AN OLD BOOK 231

1923
IN DESPAIR 233
JULIAN SEEING CONTEMPT 235
EPITAPH OF ANTIOCHOS, KING OF KOMMAGINI 237
THEATRE OF SIDON (A.D. 400) 239

1924
JULIAN IN NICOMEDIA 241
BEFORE TIME ALTERED THEM 243
HE HAD COME THERE TO READ 245
IN ALEXANDRIA, 31 B.C. 247
JOHN KANTAKUZINOS TRIUMPHS 249

1925
TEMETHOS, ANTIOCHIAN, A.D. 400 251
OF COLORED GLASS 253
THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF HIS LIFE 255
ON AN ITALIAN SHORE 257
IN THE BORING VILLAGE 259
APOLLONIOS OF TYANA IN RHODES 261

1926
KLEITOS' ILLNESS 263
IN A TOWNSHIP OF ASIA MINOR 265
PRIEST AT THE SERAPEION 267
IN THE TAVERNAS 269
A GREAT PROCESSION OF PRIESTS AND LAYMEN 271
SOPHIST LEAVING SYRIA 273
JULIAN AND THE ANTIOCHIANS 275

1927
ANNA DALASSINI 277
DAYS OF 1896 279
TWO YOUNG MEN, 23 TO 24 YEARS OLD 281
GREEK FROM ANCIENT TIMES 283
DAYS OF 1901 285

1928
YOU DIDN'T UNDERSTAND 287
A YOUNG POET IN HIS TWENTY-FOURTH YEAR 289
IN SPARTA 291
PICTURE OF A 23-YEAR-OLD PAINTED BY HIS FRIEND OF THE SAME AGE, AN AMATEUR 293
IN A LARGE GREEK COLONY, 200 B.C. 295
A PRINCE FROM WESTERN LIBYA 299
KIMON, SON OF LEARCHOS, 22, STUDENT OF GREEK LITERATURE (IN KYRINI) 301
ON THE MARCH TO SINOPI 303
DAYS OF 1909,'10, AND'11 305

1929
MYRIS: ALEXANDRIA, A.D. 340 307
ALEXANDER JANNAIOS AND ALEXANDRA 311
LOVELY WHITE FLOWERS 313
COME, O KING OF THE LACEDAIMONIANS 315
IN THE SAME SPACE 317

1930
THE MIRROR IN THE FRONT HALL 319
HE ASKED ABOUT THE QUALITY 321
TO HAVE TAKEN THE TROUBLE 323

1931
FOLLOWING THE RECIPE OF ANCIENT GRECO-SYRIAN MAGICIANS 327
IN THE YEAR 200 B.C. 329

1932
DAYS OF 1908 333

"UNPUBLISHED POEMS"
JULIAN AT THE MYSTERIES (1896) 337
KING CLAUDIUS (1899) 339
WHEN THE WATCHMAN SAW THE LIGHT (1900) 345
GROWING IN SPIRIT (1903) 347
SEPTEMBER, 1903 (1904) 349
DECEMBER, 1903 (1904) 351
ON THE STAIRS (1904) 353
AT THE THEATRE (1904) 355
POSEIDONIANS (1906) 357
ANTONY'S ENDING (1907) 359
HIDDEN THINGS (1908) 361
ON HEARING OF LOVE (1911) 363
"THE REST I WILL TELL TO THOSE DOWN IN HADES" (1913) 365
THE PHOTOGRAPH (1913) 367
GOING BACK HOME FROM GREECE (1914) 369
EXILES (1914) 371
THEOPHILOS PALAIOLOGOS (1914) 373
AND I LOUNGED AND LAY ON THEIR BEDS (1915) 375
HALF AN HOUR (1917) 377
SIMEON (1917) 379
THE BANDAGED SHOULDER (1919) 381
ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF ANTIOCH (1932-3) 383

Editor's Introduction to the Notes 387
Appendix 393
Notes to the Poems 395
Biographical Note 453
Alphabetical Index of Titles 459