General recognition came to Kawafis after his death. Now the poet’s work is studied in schools in Greece and Cyprus, and his poems are translated into many languages. He is one of the bright modern Greek poets.
Konstantinos Kavafis (1863-1933) is also the earliest of the modern poets of Greece.
Kavafis lived and worked in Alexandria, in Egypt, when the Greek diaspora flourished there during the Ottoman Empire. He spent his childhood and adolescence, however, he spent in London and in Istanbul.
In Alexandria, Kavafis worked for thirty years as an official at the colonial British ministry. At first, only the Greek community in Alexandria was familiar with his work, and only in the 20s became known about the poet in Greece.
Its unique style is a free iambic without rhyme, the use of modern Greek, the imagery of the picture and laconicism. We can say that he became one of the first creators of the new poetry of Greece.
General recognition came to Kawafis after his death. Now the poet’s work is studied in schools in Greece and Cyprus, and his poems are translated into many languages.
Below you can familiarize yourself with three of his works translated by Alina Moseikina.
Itka (passage)
You remember in all thoughts about Itka. To take there your dream and purpose. But you’re better in a hurry in the way. Let this way will last in old age on the island, rich in the fact that you have found on the way, not expecting wealth from the island.
Itaka gave you a long road. Do not be her, you would not go on the way. But to give you nothing now.
It seems poor - she did not deceive. So with the wisdom and your experience you will understand the meaning of Ithai.
City
You say: “I’ll go to a distant country, and I’ll find it better than this city. Whatever I get here-everything is doomed here, and my heart is mine, like a corpse, it’s buried. I still have to live here in this idle bustle? Wherever you look, the dust is scattered everywhere. My life is destroyed in ruins around, where I worked for so many years”.
You will not find other lands and new cities, because this city is always ready to follow you. To the same streets, you will live in the same squares and wait for your gray strands there, you will come to the same city, and do not wait for the best: there is no other way, there is no other way. Now you will find your life here, in your native land, you will not find a new one in other places.
Hidden
From what I made, they do not try to understand who I was. The Ovority stood in the road distorted all my affairs, my fate. The impendingness stood in the road did not allow me to tell me what I would like. In the most insignificant deeds in the most secret words, it would be possible to feel me. But maybe this work is not worth digging in me. Another, similar to me, will be able to act freely and express himself.
This article was first published in the "Vestnik Cyprus" on June 29, 2024. Part of the information could be outdated.
