Constantine P. Cavafy was a great Modernist poet that wrote in New Greek around the turn of the 20th century. He spent most of his life in Alexandria. His life as a whole was not dramatic (whereas Europe endured World War I during that same period, and his ethnic homeland Greece endured a bitter and lengthy confrontation with Turkey).
Judging by the good translations, Cavafy's poetry is technically superb, with words and expressions chosen extremely precisely, obviously through much labor and rewriting. He is extremely attached to his classic heritage and writes much about history and philosophy; another theme is his own sensual life (he was openly homosexual). His expressions are extremely colorful and vivid, his use of free (non-rhymed) verse combines the immediacy of everyday speech with the beauty of classical poetry.
The lyrics of the poem in English are available from here; a wonderful translation to Hebrew is available here (alas, I learnt that the translator died a relatively young man); the Greek original - here.
The poem in English, narrated by Sean Connery:
And in the original Greek:
And now, a personal note:
Two years ago, as I was nearing a graduation ceremony of sorts, I proposed to read this poem to signify the common change of venue (naturally, the proposal was benevolently ignored). Nevertheless, I feel it holds true even more at this anniversary.
I wish our followers, the 33s, a sound journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment