C. P. Cavafy: Collected Poems

ISBN: 0375400966

Author: C. P. Cavafy

Condition: New

An extraordinary literary event: the simultaneous publication of a brilliant and vivid new rendering of C. P. Cavafys Collected Poems andthe 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previous translators.The more than 250 works collected in this volume, comprising all of the Published, Repudiated, and Unpublished poems, cover the vast sweep of Hellenic civilization, from the Trojan War through Cavafys own lifetime.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.