Complete Plus: The Poems of C.P. Cavafy in English

C P Cavafy

ISBN 10: 1848612664 / ISBN 13: 9781848612662

Published by Shearsman Books, 2013

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Complete Plus: The Poems of C.P. Cavafy in English
• Publisher: Shearsman Books
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1848612664
• ISBN 13: 9781848612662
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Brand New

About this title

Synopsis

In the eighth of his Twelve Poems for Cavafy (Dodeka Poiemata yia Kavafy, 1974 ) entitled 'Misunderstandings, ' the Greek poet Yiannis Ritsos assures his readers that the older, deceased Alexandrian poet is clearly out to entangle us in his singular complexity. By now, almost four decades later, this complexity, often conveyed through a poetic medium that seems on its surface relatively simple, defines and sustains his preeminent status among poets of the last one hundred and fifty years. Ritsos spoke of the man in order to speak of the poet, as if they are indissolubly bonded, just as we habitually do despite the hard fact of knowing the poet alone survives and succeeds the man. The complexity we share with Cavafy endures in the complexity of his poetry and our engagement with it.

This book contains 162 poems - the 154 canonical Collected Poems, presented by year and within each year's order of composition and/or first printing, plus seven of the Uncollected Poems interspersed chronologically among them. Only one of his rejected, early poems has been included, 'Ode and Elegy of the Street, ' used here as a kind of overture to the collection.

About the Authors

C. P. Cavafy (the initials stand for Constantine Peter) was born in Alexandria, Egypt, on April 29, 1863, and died there on the same day of the year in 1933. He lived in England from the age of seven to sixteen, an experience that was to have a significant influence on his development as a poet. After a brief time in Constantinople, he spent the rest of his life working as a part-time civil servant and a full-time poet in Alexandria, whose diverse, rich history and culture exerted a powerful influence on him.

George Economou was born in Great Falls, Montana, and was educated at Colgate and Columbia Universities. Named twice as Fellow in Poetry by the National Endowment for the Humanities, he also held fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. He retired as Professor Emeritus of English after forty-one years of teaching, the last seventeen of which were at the University of Oklahoma. In retirement he lived in Philadelphia and Wellfleet, Massachusetts, until his death in 2019.