Ποιήματα
Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης, 1937
A civil servant in Alexandria turns Greek history into a mirror for every reader who has failed at something or is tempted to give up. Read one poem a night, and it stays with you.
Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης
1863–1933
Cavafy is the poet of people who arrive late, lose their nerve, or look back. His poems are quiet, ironic, and oddly consoling, whether he is writing about a merchant in 31 BC or a Byzantine exile; the history is a way of talking about the present. Start with «Ποιήματα» (1937), the collected poems, where you meet the tone at its fullest, or with «Ποιήματα (2)» (1904) if you want the shorter, more historical set first. «Ανέκδοτα» (1968) gathers the poems he kept back, and is best saved for when the published voice is already familiar.
Feels like memory, melancholy and time.
Start with Ποιήματα.
Cavafy worked as a clerk in the Alexandria Irrigation Office for thirty years, and he printed his poems as cheap pamphlets, which he handed out to the people he chose, one by one.
The trip you keep planning to somewhere better is a trip you have to pack.
Εἶπες ˚ «Θὰ πάγω σ’ ἄλλη γῆ, θὰ πάγω σ’ ἄλλη θάλασσα.Μιὰ πόλις ἄλλη θὰ βρεθεῖ καλλίτερη ἀπ’ αὐτή.Κάθε προσπάθειά μου μιὰ καταδίκη εἶναι γραφτῆ ˚κ’ εἲν’ ἡ καρδιά μου -σὰν νεκρός- θαμένη.Ὁ νοῦς μου ὡς πότε μὲς στὸν μαρασμὸν αὐτὸν θὰ μένει.Ὅπου τὸ μάτι μου γυρίσω, ὅπου κι ἂν δῶἐρείπια μαῦρα τῆς ζωῆς μου βλέπω ἐδῶ,ποῦ τόσα χρόνια πέρασα καὶ ρήμαξα καὶ χάλασα.»Καινούργιους τόπους δὲν θὰ βρεῖς, δὲν θάβρεις ἄλλες θάλασσες.Ἡ πόλις θὰ σὲ ἀκολουθεῖ. Στοὺς δρόμους θὰ γυρνᾷςτοὺς ἴδιους. Καὶ στὲς γειτονιὲς τὲς ἴδιες θὰ γερνᾷς ˚καὶ μὲς στὰ ἴδια σπίτια αὐτὰ θ’ ἀσπρίζεις.Πάντα στὴν πόλι αὐτὴ θὰ φθάνεις. Γιὰ τὰ ἀλλοῦ -μὴ ἐλπίζεις-δὲν ἔχει πλοῖο γιὰ σέ, δὲν ἔχει ὁδό. Books by Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης
Ανέκδοτα
Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης, 1968
Cavafy's secret drawer: poems he never published, from chess-game allegories and lost youth to homoerotic confession and the last Greek emperor.
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