Poèmes

"It will be necessary, written Cavafis in its notes, to wait until I would be completely obsolete to really discover me." The new translation suggested here wants to be a scrupulous transcription of the 184 poems which constitute his work. Quartered between the Empire ottoman with his decline, modern Egypt and the difficult emergence of a Greek State under Western domination, the alexandrine poet Constantin Cavafis (1863-1933) is regarded as one of largest of contemporary Greece. Under the outside readily measured with compasses of a quite selected collection of historical anecdotes, the author delivers to us, indeed, a subversive and corrosive work, with the antipodes of dilettantism announced, constantly autobiographical. But especially, Cavafis protests against all the integrisms. Resulting from the Eastern diaspora, this poet who feels Greek as no other affirms that the hellenism has borders only those of the spirit. He shows that above death, in spite of the collapse of the empires or the values, the only victory truly fondatrice is that of human dignity."
Dominique Grandmont.