The Complete Poems of Cavafy: Expanded Edition

Rating:
Summary: *** for the poems, * for an attempt to translate.
Review: C. P. Cavafy, Complete Poems (Harvest, 1961)

In his introduction to this book, W. H. Auden repeatedly stresses that there are elements in the poems of Cavafy, "the foremost modern Greek poet" (in the defense of the publisher, Seferis and Ritsos had not yet emerged as major forces, and Odysseus Elytis was still a few years away from winning the Nobel Prize), that are untranslatable. That is true (as he goes on to say) about most works in translation, but when Auden describes the structure of Cavafy's work, the red flags should start going off in your head. "No one can speak of Cavafy's imagery, for simile and metaphor are devices he never uses..." The astute reader of poetry will likely ask the question, "so then, what makes it poetry, and not prose broken up into lines?"

In Greek, the answer to that question is "rhythm and rhyme." Cavafy is a formalist, perhaps one of the last modern masters of form poetry. The problem is, that doesn't translate (especially in this translation, by Rae Dalven) into English, and the effect becomes that of reading a disjointed, pseudo-erotic History of Greece rather than a book of poetry. Cavafy's wit and subtlety are completely lost, as is any attempt to show the original framework on which the words hang, and which, in this poetry, is so very important:

The joy and essence of my life is the memory of the hours
when I found and sustained sensual delight as I desired it.
The joy and essence of my life for me, who abhorred
every enjoyment of routine loves.
--"Sensual Delight"

The sad truth is, while in Greek it's a rhymed poem where each line is fifteen syllables, in English it would have a hard time getting published as an aphorism, much less a poem.

Perhaps a better translation of Cavafy's work has emerged in the intervening forty years; between reading this and leaving Cavafy's work untranslated, the better option would have been the latter. **

Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: Great Poet.you will be in Rome ,may watch
Julian the apostate,pagan priests,rise of
christianity crushing the thought that was
rich and ripe;( because of what whole west
wallowed wantonly in the obscure mud for
1500 yrs until the wake of renaisance.)

there are beautiful poems otherthan
depicting ancient times alone.

Rating:
Summary: The Torment of Presence
Review: I first encountered Cavafy as the writer ofa grim little poem called 'The City' - "You will find no new lands, you will find no other seas. The city will follow you." This bleak essay is the incarnation of the hopelessness of noir writing, and so my formative opinion of Cavafy perceived him as something much difference from what he is. Even though the bleak and an atmosphere of despair frequently haunt his efforts.

It was only in later study, after realizing that my 'secret' poet was actually one of the foremost of modern Greek poets. One who, despite the difficulties in the translation of his poems has had an influence well beyond the barriers of language. Cavafy habitually used to forms of Greek, demotic and purist, to carry out his devices. He writes plainly, with little or no metaphor or simile, but what makes his poems poetry is largely untranslatable. Yet, as one reads through his work in English translation, there are countless moments when something grabs your attention.

W. H. Auden, who wrote the introduction, attributes this to Cafavy's uniqueness, which somehow differentiates him from everyone else at the same time as it creates a connection. I find that reading Cavafy in translation is a bit like having a conversation with someone who has a very interesting way of expressing himself. His subjects are most often his own sensuality and the nature of the human state as a part of the old world of Greek history. But whether he is working within the parameters of his own homosexuality, or pondering the state of Demetrius Soter, Cafavy rarely fails to his home.

If you are looking to expand poetic horizons from an unexpected perspective, or smply enjoy verse that brings you up short and makes you think, there is much here for your reading. You will find Cavafy work easily accessible a valuable addition to the contemplatives library.

Rating:
Summary: The Torment of Presence
Review: I first encountered Cavafy as the writer ofa grim little poem called 'The City' - "You will find no new lands, you will find no other seas. The city will follow you." This bleak essay is the incarnation of the hopelessness of noir writing, and so my formative opinion of Cavafy perceived him as something much difference from what he is. Even though the bleak and an atmosphere of despair frequently haunt his efforts.

It was only in later study, after realizing that my 'secret' poet was actually one of the foremost of modern Greek poets. One who, despite the difficulties in the translation of his poems has had an influence well beyond the barriers of language. Cavafy habitually used to forms of Greek, demotic and purist, to carry out his devices. He writes plainly, with little or no metaphor or simile, but what makes his poems poetry is largely untranslatable. Yet, as one reads through his work in English translation, there are countless moments when something grabs your attention.

W. H. Auden, who wrote the introduction, attributes this to Cafavy's uniqueness, which somehow differentiates him from everyone else at the same time as it creates a connection. I find that reading Cavafy in translation is a bit like having a conversation with someone who has a very interesting way of expressing himself. His subjects are most often his own sensuality and the nature of the human state as a part of the old world of Greek history. But whether he is working within the parameters of his own homosexuality, or pondering the state of Demetrius Soter, Cafavy rarely fails to his home.

If you are looking to expand poetic horizons from an unexpected perspective, or smply enjoy verse that brings you up short and makes you think, there is much here for your reading. You will find Cavafy work easily accessible a valuable addition to the contemplatives library.

Rating:
Summary: Rediscovering Timeless Qualities
Review: There are those days when nothing new appeals to you, and it's good then to turn to your something that is not new. I did recently -- Cavafy.

To read the verse of C.P. Cavafy is to rediscover the timeless quality of passion, desire, pain, and life itself. He offers another view of everything you have ever felt, giving it new perspective. There is little imagery in the work -- it would be unnecessary adornment. They eye and voice of Cavafy are all that is necessary. He saw and said, and did so simply. You need not ponder for hours the nuances of the work. That time can instead be well spent contemplating how and why things feel the way they do.

Cavafy questions civilization. In "Expecting the Barbarians," he describes with characteristic simplicity the essential sense of human relief that is found in giving up specifically in giving up the trappings and restrictions placed on the inhabitants of any society. Cavafy yearns for freedom, and when at last that freedom is denied, he ponders going on without that 'kind of solution. "

Cavafy never questions love or lust. "He Asked About the Quality" explores chance encounter and desire that must be hidden even when that desire is mutual:

". . . their only aim, the touching of their hands over the handkerchiefs; the coming close of their faces, by chance their lips; a momentary contact of the limbs."

The collection. the entirety of Cavafy's work, is a celebration of both antiquity and the present. Greece, Rome, Alexandria of the early nineteen hundreds, early Christianity itself -- these are Cavafy's settings. In spanning two thousand years of Western culture he discovers and reveals an immediacy, an appreciation of beauty -- the beauty of man himself, both physical and contemplative. Cavafy finds the joie de vivre even when it hurts. Then, in "The Horses of Achilles," he goes further and laments. Patroclus is slain and lifeless on the battleground. The immortal horses, gifts of the gods, begin to cry. Zeus tries to console them:

" --- Yet the two noble animals went on shedding their tears for the never ending calamity of death."

Cavafy: a look into something old, very old at times, yet always very new.

Rating:
Summary: A note on the translation
Review: This review is not about the work of Cavafy itself, which I love, but a comment on the translation. Many critics have complained that a great deal is lost in a translation of Cavafy, particularly some of the linguistic and stylistic craftsmanship, and that is true of any translation of a poet. However, I believe the tone or the mood of poems, so important in a poet like Cavafy, are underemphasized, and if a translation is capable of conveying them with profundity, it is commendable; and in this respect the Rae Dalven translation is far superior to the Keeley/Sherrard and the Theoharis translations I have read, and the only one worth returning to - it remains evocative where the others seem to miss the pitch, sounding flat or overdone.

Rating:
Summary: Ironic Philhellene...Intelligent, Honest Lover of Males...
Review: This review relates to the volume -The Complete Poems
of Cavafy-, Expanded Edition, Translated by Rae Dalven,
published by Harcourt, Inc., 1976.
Although his name is spelled as Konstantinos Petrou
Kabaphes, the name by which he is usually referred is
an English version, C.P. Cavafy. He lived from
1863 - 1933, and resided most of his life in Alexandria,
Egypt. Perhaps the only poem that most modern readers
might come in contact with in modern poetry anthologies
is "Ithaca." And even in this poem, one can see the
interesting, wry, ironic way that Cavafy has of reversing
what one might think would be the usual, or "safe"
way of seeing things. Cavafy has that very interesting
double vision, which knows the "usual" and the "accepted,"
and yet dares to sail in the face of convention and
expectation and create the unexpected, the delightful,
the heart touching, the soulful. That is not to say
that he is maudlin or sentimental in a syrupy fashion.
That double vision comes from the double nature of the
experiencer and the viewer and the analyzer. Cavafy
was a lover of males. The words "homosexual" and "gay"
just don't even come close to doing justice or exactness
to what that life direction meant to him. For, though
he knows what he is and what he desires, he also knows
the surrounding culture's and religion's negative
attitudes and doctrines towards that direction. So
it results in a double-awareness, with multiple levels

of subtle nuance. He sees, knows, analyzes the outward
manifestations, experiences, modes -- and yet at the
same time internally is aware, secretly, of the inner
manifestations, desires, manifestations, and modes.
The critical edge of judgment and decision is when
and in what ways he will actualize the secret internal
desire into the "public" external world. These poems
reflect those attempts and results. However, Cavafy
is also interested in ancient history, and many of
his poems reflect a sort of world-weary love and
appreciation, yet sadness at the passing of the past,
towards the history of ancient Greece and that of
the Hellenistic World which followed in the wake
of the conquests and death of Alexander the Great.
Here is a sample of Cavafy, the poem titled "At the
Cafe Entrance":
Something they said beside me directed
my attention toward the cafe entrance.
And I saw the beautiful body that looked
as if Eros had made it from his consumate experience --
joyfully modeling its symmetrical limbs;
heightening sculpturally its stature;
modeling the face with emotion
and imparting by the touch of his hands
a feeling on the brow, on the eyes, on the lips.
--------------------
-- Robert Kilgore.

Rating:
Summary: Lovely Accessible Poems
Review: While the poems about historical and mythilogical Greek figures didn't do much for me, I loved his gay poems. He captures the attraction of young men for each other just right (these poems date from 1911-1925 mostly). I'm very intrigued that Cavafy wanted his gay poems included in his collected work, but he sought to supress the heterosexual poems.