Cavafy, Constantine (redirected from Constantine Cavafy)

Cavafy, Constantine (kävä`fē), pseud. of Konstantínos Pétrou Kaváfis (kôn'stäntē`nôs pā`tr kävä`fēs), 1863–1933, Greek poet. He spent most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt. Although he published little work, he is regarded as one of the foremost modern Greek poets. Skeptical and nonconformist, he was critical of Christian and nationalistic morality and was one of the first to write openly about homosexuality. Among his best-known poems are "The City" and "Waiting for the Barbarians." His Collected Poems have been published in a number of English translations.

Bibliography

See memoir and translations by M. Kolaitis (1980); studies by K. Kapre-Karka (1982), G. Jusdanis (1987), and J. P. Anton (1995).

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Cavafy, Constantine

 orig. Konstantínos Pétrou Kaváfis

Constantine Cavafy.

(credit: Dimitri Papadimos)

(born April 17, 1863, Alexandria—died April 29, 1933, Alexandria) Poet of Turkish-Greek ancestry. Born to Greek parents, Cavafy worked as an obscure civil servant in Alexandria his entire adult life. His small body of work, some 200 poems in an intimate, realistic, lyrical style, is written in a strange combination of classically based and modern Greek. Many deal with history, principally the Hellenistic era; many others reflect Cavafy's homosexual life. His poems became popular and influential after his death, and he is now widely regarded as one of the greatest of modern Greek poets.