Alexandria TodayCavafy's poems are a combination, a celebration of antiquity and the present. The settings: Greece, Rome and his beloved Alexandria. Constantine Cavafy (1873-1933) a Greek language poet was an Egyptian government clerk, but today he is considered one of the finest of European poets. His verse written in spare elemental language is beautiful and poignant and often fused with the exotic flavor of Alexandria and homoeroticism. However his poems go beyond this and are universal in nature in the sense that they evoke a life keenly felt and appreciated__ moments of both joy and sadness, pleasure and pain. Many of his poems call back the ancient past and then thrust it into the present, both in a personal and historical sense. Or his verse may recall the past in a sensuous language and then push it forward by comparison into the stark musings of an old man reliving his past in the present. Cavafy was the master of presenting a scene, a place or an intense feeling in a direct in unadorned prose, few are better. The standard English translation since the 1950' has been that of Rae Dalven. A more recent and fresher translation by Daniel Mendelsohn is a better read for modern English readers. Mendelshon catches the pace of the Greek artistically and accurately. If you enjoy poetry that fuses the ancient past with the present Cavafy will be a welcome discovery. (see Alexandria Quartet), "C.P. Cavafy Collected Poems."
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