Konstantinos Cavafis was a Greek poet who explored uncomfortable themes in his work, which was considered radical for his time. He spent most of his life in Egypt, Turkey, and England, working as a civil servant and publishing his poetry separately. His work received little attention during his lifetime, but he is now considered one of the main representatives of the change that took place in Greek literature in the mid-20th century. His poetry is historical, sensual, and philosophical, and he drew from personal experience, history, and Greek mythology. His work changed the face of Greek poetry and challenged societal views on important issues.
Konstantinos Cavafis (also transliterated as Constantinos or Constantine Cavafy) was the most prominent Greek poet of the twentieth century. His work has been widely translated, although most of his poetry was not formally published until after his death in 1933. Konstantinos Cavafis explored many uncomfortable themes in his work, which was considered extremely radical for the time of him. Konstantinos Cavafy’s poetry, even in translation, is haunting, lyrical and compelling.
Konstantinos Cavafis was born in Alexandria to Greek parents in 1863. Although Cavafis was of Greek nationality, he spent very little of his life in Greece, living mainly in Egypt, although he also spent time in Turkey and England. His father ran an import and export business and lived and worked in England long enough to obtain dual citizenship. The family lived in Alexandria until 1870 when Konstantinos Kavfis’s father died and his mother took the family to Liverpool.
After encountering financial difficulties in England, the family returned to Egypt, where they lived for only five years before being forced to relocate again, this time to Constantinople, now called Istanbul, where Konstantinos Cavafis spent his childhood. In 1885 Cavafis returned to Alexandria and remained there for the rest of his life, presumably exhausted by the frequent travels he made as a child.
In Alexandria, Konstantinos Cavafis worked first as a journalist and then for the Ministry of Public Works. He spent his life as a civil servant, publishing his poems separately in the form of sheets and notebooks that were distributed among his friends and the literary community. His work received little attention during his lifetime, as it was very different from conventional Greek poetry and accessed to a very limited audience. Only in the 1920s, as changes in the Greek literary community increased, did Konstantinos Cavafis begin to receive any kind of acclaim for his work.
Cavafis changed the face of Greek poetry, to the extent that he is considered one of the main representatives of the change that took place in Greek literature in the mid-20th century, and his work is widely taught in Greek schools. His poetry is very refined and uses atypical rhyme schemes which are often not reflected in the translation. Much of his poetry is historical and includes questions about religion, morality, homosexuality, and psychology. These themes were extremely daring for the era in which he was writing.
Cavafy drew from personal experience, history and Greek mythology to write his work, and spent much of his life in isolation, isolated from the Greek community. His very deliberate artistry is used as a model by many modern poets, who strive to create the impact that Cavafis has achieved with his often very short and simple poems.
Konstantinos Cavafis wrote a number of types of poems, dividing them into three genres. There were historical poems, such as “Ithaca” and “God forsake Antony,” which focused on decay and decline, especially in historic Alexandria. He has also written sensual poems, such as “Waiting for the Barbarians”, which deal with sexuality, nostalgia, emotion and remembrance. Additionally, there are the philosophical poems, which ponder human nature, thorny issues, closure, and dignity. Examples of Cavafy’s philosophical poems include “The Walls” and “Thermopylae”.
Konstantinos Cavafis made an enormous contribution to 20th century Greek literature, and it is a great tragedy that he was never acclaimed for it during his lifetime. His work changed the face of Greek poetry, ushered in a new experimental age, and challenged societal views on many important issues.
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