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Cavafy is one of the most singular and poignant voices of twentieth-century European poetry, conjuring a magical world through lyrical evocations of remembered passions, imagined monologues and dramatic retellings of his native Alexandria's ancient past.
Figures from antiquity speak with telling interruptions from the author in such poems as 'You did not understand', while precise moments of history are seen with a sense of foreboding, as in 'The Ides of March' and 'Nero's Deadline'. And in poems that draw on his own life and surroundings, Cavafy recalls illicit trysts or glimpses of beautiful young men in 'One Night', 'Days of 1908' and 'The Cafe Entrance', and creates exquisite miniatures of vernacular Alexandria in 'An Old Man' and 'Of the Shop'. Avi Sharon's sensitive translation retains the rich and inventive tone of the poems, while the introduction explores Cavafy's life and poetic style. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading and notes.
Author: C.P. Cavafy, Avi Sharon (Translator)
Paper Published May 2008 256 pages