C.P. Cavafy
@CCavafy
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“Keep Ithaka always in mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it goes on for years
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way...”
– The island of Ithaka, early 20th century.
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606
“Ithaca gave you the beautiful journey;
without her you wouldn’t have set upon the road.”
– C.P. Cavafy was born
#OTD
April 29, 1863. He died on his 70th birthday, April 29, 1933.
“Ithaca”, translated by
@DAMendelsohnNYC
#poetry
#cavafy
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531
“But there is one unfortunate difference between us [the British and the Greeks], one little difference. We Greeks have lost our capital – and the results are what you see. Pray, my dear Forster, oh pray, that you never lose your capital.”
– C.P. Cavafy to E. M. Forster, 1918.
7
125
427
“How different is his history from an Englishman’s. Athens and Sparta, so drubbed into us at school, are to him two quarrelsome little slave states, ephemeral beside the Hellenistic kingdoms that followed, as these are ephemeral beside Constantinople.”
– E.M. Forster on Cavafy.
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419
“Cavafy is for me not only the great poet of the Levant, but of all culture in decline — which makes him universal in this century.”
– John Fowles
3
79
403
Cavafy’s last Greek passport of 1932, listing his occupation as “Poet”, with two birthdates, both erroneous. Cavafy Archive.
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391
“I am a poet of old age. The most lively events do not inspire me at once. First, time must pass. Then later I remember them and am inspired.” – C.P. Cavafy.
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363
“You will find no new lands, you will find no other seas.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “The City”, translated by Rae Dalven, via
@soph_scanlon
#poetry
#cavafy
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108
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“Reading Cavafy for the first time I saw the infinity I knew about, an immense vista of silence between one line and the next: eros was that interval, not the action of the sentence. Or perhaps what I responded to was simply the atmosphere of fated submission.”
–
#LouiseGluck
0
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340
“When we say ‘Time’ we mean ourselves. Most abstractions are simply our pseudonyms. We are time.”
– C.P. Cavafy.
0
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“This morning we went to the Archaeological Museum. Fine. Particularly beautiful the bust of Antinous.”
– Diary of C.P. Cavafy, Athens, 18 June 1901.
photo via
@carolemadge
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58
317
“Many poets are exclusively poets... I am a poet-historian. I could never write a novel or a play, but I feel in me a hundred and twenty-five voices that tell me that I could write history. But now there is no more time.”
– C.P. Cavafy
4
65
323
“Reading Cavafy for the first time I saw the infinity I knew about, an immense vista of silence between one line and the next: eros was that interval, not the action of the sentence. Or perhaps what I responded to was simply the atmosphere of fated submission.”
–
#LouiseGl
ück
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323
“I am from Constantinople by descent, but I was born in Alexandria – at a house on Cherif Pacha Street.”
– C.P. Cavafy.
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315
Cavafy’s last Greek passport of 1932, listing his occupation as “Poet” and two birthdates, both erroneous. Cavafy Archive.
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100
314
“We reached Corfu early in the morning of the 1st August. We walked about the streets which are narrow but have arcades. We went for a drive up the hill commanding the town of Corfu and must say it was the most beautiful scenery that I ever saw.”
–C. Cavafy, Corfu, 1 August 1901
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305
“I am from Constantinople by descent, but I was born in Alexandria – at a house on Cherif Pacha Street.”
– C.P. Cavafy.
1
57
311
“And then he drinks and smokes; he drinks and smokes;
and drags himself around the cafés all day long.”
– Rare image of the interior of one of Cavafy’s favourite cafés, “Athineos”, Alexandria, 1909, with the owner Constantine Jean Athineos.
4
79
295
In the village of Volax on the Greek island of Tinos, two poems of Cavafy (“Ithaka” and “The City”) on the door of an abandoned house. Photo via
@profmcscott
#poetry
#cavafy
5
85
285
“Ithaca gave you the beautiful journey;
without her you wouldn’t have set upon the road.”
– C.P. Cavafy was born
#OTD
April 29, 1863. He died on his 70th birthday, April 29, 1933.
“Ithaca”, translated by
@DAMendelsohnNYC
#poetry
#cavafy
2
110
285
View of the interior of Cavafy’s flat on Lepsius Street, Alexandria. It depicts a hallway with bookcases and seats, at the end of which is a window, a desk and a screen. Cavafy Archive.
1
69
270
“Cavafy is for me not only the great poet of the Levant, but of all culture in decline — which makes him universal in this century.”
– John Fowles
7
58
272
“But there is one unfortunate difference between us [the British and the Greeks], one little difference. We Greeks have lost our capital – and the results are what you see. Pray, my dear Forster, oh pray, that you never lose your capital.”
— C.P. Cavafy to E. M. Forster, 1918.
7
83
251
“We reached Corfu early in the morning of the 1st August. We walked about the streets which are narrow but have arcades. We went for a drive up the hill commanding the town of Corfu and must say it was the most beautiful scenery that I ever saw.”
–C. Cavafy, Corfu, 1 August 1901
2
58
259
Sean Connery Reads C.P. Cavafy’s Epic Poem “Ithaca”, Set to the Music of Vangelis via
@openculture
#poetry
#cavafy
#RIPSeanConnery
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257
Photograph of the room in the Greek Hospital of Alexandria where Cavafy died on 29 April 1933. Some of his personal items can be seen, such as his hat, suitcase and a notepad with pencil. Cavafy Archive.
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256
“How different is his history from an Englishman’s. Athens and Sparta, so drubbed into us at school, are to him two quarrelsome little slave states, ephemeral beside the Hellenistic kingdoms that followed, as these are ephemeral beside Constantinople.”
– E.M. Forster on Cavafy
3
60
259
“I am from Constantinople by descent, but I was born in Alexandria – at a house on Cherif Pacha Street.”
– C.P. Cavafy.
2
52
259
Rare photograph of the poet’s brother and first translator John Cavafy, right, taken on a trip to Constantinople, 1902, with his cousin Dimitrios Zalichi, at the Zalichi family residence. Cavafy Archive.
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44
254
“When we say ‘Time’ we mean ourselves. Most abstractions are simply our pseudonyms. We are time.”
– C.P. Cavafy.
3
76
249
“I am from Constantinople by descent, but I was born in Alexandria – at a house on Cherif Pacha Street.”
– C.P. Cavafy.
0
44
248
“When we say ‘Time’ we mean ourselves. Most abstractions are simply our pseudonyms. We are time.”
– C.P. Cavafy.
1
99
244
“The affection of Telemachus, the loyalty
Of Penelope, his father’s aging years,
His old friends, the love
Of his devoted subjects,
The peace and repose of his home
Bored him.
And so he left.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “Second Odyssey”.
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“Honor to all of those who in their lives
have settled on, and guard, a Thermopylae.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “Thermopylae”, translated by
@DAMendelsohnNYC
#poetry
#cavafy
#Greece
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“I am a poet of old age. The most lively events do not inspire me at once. First, time must pass. Then later I remember them and am inspired.”
– C.P. Cavafy.
6
54
232
“Often Cavafy’s poems reveal the emotion that we should have felt at the sight of a statue which is no longer there; it was there, there where we once saw it, there in the place from which it has now been removed. But they do reveal the emotion.”
– George Seferis on Cavafy.
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232
“I know that I am cowardly and am unable to act. Therefore I confine myself to words. But I do not think my words are needless. Someone else will act. But my many words—the words of a coward—will facilitate their deed. My words clear the ground.”
– C.P. Cavafy
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229
“For the Greeks, seamen or expatriates, people of the Nation or of Greek communities scattered throughout the world, the meaning of Ithaka is inexhaustible. Cavafy is the poet of the Greek diaspora.”
– George Seferis, “Cavafy’s Ithaka”.
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“If a story that should be told in fifty pages is written in thirty it will be better… that is, the artist will leave something out, but that’s not a fault... But if he gives it in a hundred pages it’s a fearful fault.”
– C.P. Cavafy
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“How horrible these new philosophical ideas of hardness, of the rightful superiority of the mighty, of the alleged sanitising function of the struggle that will eliminate the small and sickly... Not hardness, but Mercy, Grief, Compassion are also Power and Wisdom.”
– C.P. Cavafy
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“In a choked voice, he suddenly erupted: ‘We were alone... Smyrna is lost, Ionia is lost, the Gods are lost.’ He could not continue. In the light of the lamp I saw tears rolling down his face.”
– Polys Modinos, who visited Cavafy shortly after the burning of Smyrna, Sept. 1922.
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211
“I am a poet of old age. The most lively events do not inspire me at once. First, time must pass. Then later I remember them and am inspired.”
– C.P. Cavafy
3
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217
“The true artist does not have, like the hero of a myth, to choose between virtue and vice; both will serve him and he will love both equally.”
– C.P. Cavafy
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“And say farewell, farewell to Alexandria leaving.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “The God Abandons Antony”, translated by Lawrence Durrell, who was born
#OnThisDay
1912.
#poetry
#cavafy
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In the village of Volax on the Greek island of Tinos, two poems of Cavafy (“Ithaka” and “The City”) on the door of an abandoned house. Photo via
@profmcscott
#poetry
#cavafy
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57
214
“Somewhere out there lies Alexandria, maintaining its tenuous grasp on one’s affections through memories... of friends, of incidents long past.”
– Lawrence Durrell.
[The Corniche, Alexandria, 1940s]
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198
“How horrible these new philosophical ideas of hardness, of the rightful superiority of the mighty, of the alleged sanitising function of the struggle that will eliminate the small and sickly... Not hardness, but Mercy, Grief, Compassion are also Power and Wisdom.”
– C.P. Cavafy
0
72
204
“This morning we went to the Archaeological Museum. Fine. Particularly beautiful the bust of Antinous.”
– Diary of C.P. Cavafy, Athens, 18 June 1901.
Photo via
@carolemadge
0
32
196
“How horrible these new philosophical ideas of hardness, of the rightful superiority of the mighty, of the alleged sanitising function of the struggle that will eliminate the small and sickly... Not hardness but Mercy, Compassion are both Power and wisdom.”
– Cavafy, note, 1910.
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“Cavafy was only interested really in one subject, which is time and the passage of time, and how it affects how you see the past, whether that past is a Byzantine emperor’s attempts to restore the empire or one’s own love affair with a boy in Alexandria in 1892.”
– Ian Parks
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197
“You’ll always end up in this city. Don’t bother to hope
for a ship, a route, to take you somewhere else; they don’t exist.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “The City”.
[Alexandria, Egypt, 1870. Photograph by Felix Bonfils]
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“I am from Constantinople by descent...”
– C.P. Cavafy.
[View of the Phanar district – chief Greek quarter of Constantinople during the Ottoman period – home of Cavafy’s distinguished Phanariot ancestors]
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54
198
“It is not dignified in a great nation to reap profit from half-truths and half-rights; honesty is the best policy, and honesty in the case of the Elgin Marbles means restitution.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “Give Back the Elgin Marbles”, 1891.
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75
197
“In a choked voice, he suddenly erupted: ‘We were alone... Smyrna is lost, Ionia is lost, the Gods are lost.’ He could not continue. In the light of the lamp I saw tears rolling down his face.”
– Polys Modinos, who visited Cavafy shortly after the burning of Smyrna, Sept. 1922.
4
59
202
“And melancholy, I came out on the balcony—
came out to change my thoughts at least by looking at
a little of the city that I loved,
a little movement on the street, and in the shops.”
– C.P. Cavafy.
[View from the Abbat Hotel, Alexandria. Photo: Giuseppe Levi, 1896]
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198
“You could read Cavafy’s poetry as a splendid treatise on failure, a discourse on disaster. The Alexandrian poet found a positive side, even a kind of comfort, a sweetness, in defeat. Vanquished peoples tower over their vulgar conquerors intellectually.”
– Adam Zagajewski
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52
195
“Ah, if only he could be in Syria!
He was so young when he left his homeland
that he barely remembers her.
But in his mind he dwelt on her always,
like a holy icon approached in reverence,
the dream of a beautiful landscape, a vision
of Greek cities and harbours.”
– C.P. Cavafy.
3
58
187
“We reached Corfu early in the morning of the 1st August. We walked about the streets which are narrow but have arcades. We went for a drive up the hill commanding the town of Corfu and must say it was the most beautiful scenery that I ever saw.”
– C.P. Cavafy, 1st August 1901
1
54
196
“I know that I am cowardly and am unable to act. Therefore I confine myself to words. But I don’t think my words are without purpose. Someone else will act. But my many words—the words of a coward—will make it easier for them to act. My words clear the ground.”
– C. Cavafy, 1902
0
77
190
“But there is one unfortunate difference between us [the British and the Greeks], one little difference. We Greeks have lost our capital – and the results are what you see. Pray, my dear Forster, oh pray, that you never lose your capital.”
– C.P. Cavafy to E.M. Forster, 1918.
6
66
180
“And then he drinks and smokes; he drinks and smokes;
and drags himself around the cafés all day long.”
– Rare image of the interior of one of Cavafy’s favourite cafés, “Athineos”, Alexandria, 1909, with the owner Constantine Jean Athineos.
1
32
194
“And melancholy, I came out on the balcony—”
– View from the balcony of Cavafy’s apartment on the Rue Lepsius, Alexandria.
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38
189
“In these dark rooms where I live out
empty days, I circle back and forth
trying to find the windows.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “The Windows”.
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66
176
“When years ago I took this house I didn’t expect to stay long... I always had it in my mind to leave. Years passed without my taking a final decision. Shall I leave, or shall I put in electric light?”
– Entrance to Cavafy’s flat, Rue Lepsius, Alexandria. Photo by W. Guaregua.
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177
“But he read for barely ten minutes,
then gave it up, falling half asleep on the sofa.
He’s completely devoted to books—
but he’s twenty-three, and very handsome.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “He Came to Read”.
[Yannis Tsarouchis (1910-1989), “Illustration Cavafy”, 1951]
0
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178
“And then he drinks and smokes; he drinks and smokes;
and drags himself around the cafés all day long.”
– Rare image of the interior of one of Cavafy’s favourite cafés, “Athineos”, Alexandria, 1909, with the owner Constantine Jean Athineos.
7
62
177
“Ithaca gave you the beautiful journey;
without her you wouldn’t have set upon the road.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “Ithaca”, translated by
@DAMendelsohnNYC
#poetry
#cavafy
4
71
183
A Cavafy poem for
#NewYearsEve
“How quickly the snuffed-out candles multiply.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “Candles”, translated by
@DAMendelsohnNYC
#poetry
#cavafy
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53
181
In the village of Volax on the Greek island of Tinos, two poems of Cavafy (“Ithaka” and “The City”) on the door of an abandoned house. Photo via
@profmcscott
#poetry
#cavafy
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180
“You English cannot understand us: we Greeks went bankrupt a long time ago.”
– C.P. Cavafy to E.M. Forster, 1918.
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“We are an assortment here; Syrians, Greeks, Armenians, Medes.”
– Group portrait of the Armenian Orchestra of Alexandria. Photo by Aida Studio, 1924.
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“I think of Cavafy as an old man wandering the streets. I think of him as a lover of books living as a member of a minority within a minority. I think of him as a lonely, provincial man aware of his provinciality, who turns that knowledge into a kind of wisdom.”
– Orhan Pamuk.
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175
“The city will be following you. In the same streets
you’ll wander. And in the same neighbourhoods you’ll age,
and in these same houses you will grow grey.”
– C.P. Cavafy, “The City”.
[Boulevard de Ramleh, Alexandria, ca. 1880]
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176
“For me, the Byzantine period is like a closet with many drawers.
If I want something, I know where to find it, into which drawer to
look.”
– Constantine P. Cavafy.
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174
“The hours have passed quickly
since nine o’clock when I lit the lamp
and sat down here. I’ve been sitting without reading,
without speaking. To whom could I speak,
all alone within this house.”
– C.P. Cavafy. “Since Nine—“
[Hallway, Cavafy’s flat, Rue Lepsius, Alexandria]
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Constantine Cavafy’s last passport, listing “Poet” as occupation and two discrete birth dates, both erroneous (Cavafy Archive).
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174
“I am stopping with T.E. Lawrence for a few days, and have brought down all your poems with me, that he may read them through. He has done so with enormous enthusiasm. He said ‘a great achievement – modern literature of the highest order.’”
– E.M. Forster, letter to Cavafy, 1924
1
46
176
“We reached Corfu early in the morning of the 1st August. We walked about the streets which are narrow but have arcades. We went for a drive up the hill commanding the town of Corfu and must say it was the most beautiful scenery that I ever saw.”
– Cavafy, 1 August 1901.
2
41
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