The Complete Poems of C.P. Cavafy

The Complete Poems of C.P. Cavafy
Daniel Mendelsohn

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). Whether advising Odysseus as he returns home to Ithaca or portraying a doomed Marc Antony on the eve of his death, Cavafy’s poetry makes the historical personal – and vice versa. He brings to his profound exploration of longing and loneliness, fate and loss, memory and identity the historian’s assessing eye as well as the poet’s compassionate heart.After more than a decade of work, Daniel Mendelsohn – an acclaimed, award-winning author and classicist who alone among Cavafy’s translators shares the poet’s deep intimacy with the ancient world – is uniquely positioned to give readers full access to Cavafy’s genius. This volume includes the first-ever English translation of thirty unfinished poems that Cavafy left in drafts when he died – a remarkable, hitherto unknown discovery that remained in the Cavafy Archive in Athens for decades. With Mendelsohn’s in-depth introduction and commentary situating each work in a rich historical, literary, and biographical context, this revelatory new translation is a literary event – the definitive presentation of Cavafy in English.

C. P. CAVAFY

Complete Poems

TRANSLATED,

WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY,

BY

DANIEL MENDELSOHN

CONTENTS

Title Page (#uf1307358-6f8a-5860-8f1c-82a497468ad9)

Introduction: The Poet-Historian (#uaae696d8-4640-508b-947d-13e7165eed04)

A Note on Pronunciation of Proper Names (#u494b139f-561a-5631-8408-10e19148c327)

I: PUBLISHED POEMS (#u446d759c-1b0f-5114-a05d-621e6126574e)

Poems 1905–1915 (#ucc39a76e-62e3-5acb-924d-1d716ade57e5)

The City (#u7566f17c-2b64-58a5-84a6-d06991041724)

The Satrapy (#uf1249162-1f31-50bf-a6f1-e5e012c27be1)

But Wise Men Apprehend What Is Imminent (#ufa13ffbb-8d8c-540e-9a57-a86b40c608ac)

Ides of March (#u0e77fb10-c932-5e3d-a9e5-393c02f6723e)

Finished (#u00a80c03-dd49-5cd0-bdf5-744991191c50)

The God Abandons Antony (#u1053f3ee-a5d0-548e-b6c6-ad1d9b80ea5b)

Theodotus (#ud29311d5-de6b-5890-a797-9334f45cb5c1)

Monotony (#u1402361a-c979-52d2-a171-6c45fd98e047)

Ithaca (#u7886cbe6-449e-5350-a521-2bb0f4f9c70c)

As Much As You Can (#ud552f4e4-ccae-5306-9a27-bad24a6cc770)

Trojans (#u53ec84f7-86f2-5d9e-a2c3-f42c353a897f)

King Demetrius (#u4bebfd14-78d4-538d-a2c4-d19a040a5152)

The Glory of the Ptolemies (#uffe1e67d-0cd1-5b01-99dd-23724b83e842)

The Retinue of Dionysus (#u2b53e354-0d5e-5209-8f0a-42ce2225876e)

The Battle of Magnesia (#ud9471c84-506a-5a3d-a985-bc36361421f1)

The Seleucid’s Displeasure (#ued52de49-a6e0-5c09-a0a7-9f188a891481)

Orophernes (#u199d19cb-a761-563d-82b4-2a17003f03fd)

Alexandrian Kings (#u4a6ae30f-3392-5047-a758-1bdbeada7e47)

Philhellene (#u8fc2fdd5-9f88-5124-82b9-3885dafdf132)

The Steps (#uc8ee6325-e31b-5f17-a6da-fac0ed1475c5)

Herodes Atticus (#u6e435cb3-eae1-5571-9c96-0b93cddac884)

Sculptor from Tyana (#u34cf97a2-1587-5d9f-a438-8b4808c74d07)

The Tomb of Lysias the Grammarian (#u153b9216-3b9c-5558-bbdc-0cfca534541c)

Tomb of Eurion (#u03237bdb-8a67-5822-9c68-593c849daed6)

That Is He (#u54e5c12d-3115-5470-af00-fc380c5f922f)

Dangerous (#uee6f1e31-4363-598b-8312-13e0ad3bb989)

Manuel Comnenus (#u0993afd8-449f-5cd0-a19c-291516f31e0a)

In the Church (#u8b86abef-aa93-5f78-bf21-bc96d45dfc7e)

Very Rarely (#u87b1a0a4-6997-5105-9c7f-96f5c9c36d4d)

In Stock (#uc7dc34fc-7370-57ec-a988-0e1d552d1741)

Painted (#u5a1cd588-4b00-52b0-9fc5-afabab0a8d1b)

Morning Sea (#u06383326-a946-5c19-8b8c-e5451f413f10)

Song of Ionia (#u37dc0635-5665-53c2-b74b-54f9331144ee)

In the Entrance of the Café (#ud9af806f-bf11-5eb6-8d73-c802f4c07b66)

One Night (#u34a94ffd-b934-5d46-a2dd-86b3e9b67897)

Come Back (#ua28e988e-b5e8-58bd-93a3-b58999bc71fa)