An Athenian Diary

26

C. P. Cavafy and Alexandria by Egypt

Alexandria by Egypt -- so the Greeks and Romans called the city founded by Alexander the Great because it was not regarded as part of Egypt, but something separate. It lies by the sea, on one of the mouths of the Nile. From its foundation it was one of the great cities of the Hellenistic and Roman world, capital of an Empire till the death of Kleopatra VII, then capital of the Roman province (in various guises) till the invasion of the newly Muslim Arabs, then a great port and center of civilization, gradually overtaken by the new foundation of Cairo. The sense of historical depth floats about the city; it captured the imaginations of writers like E. M. Forster, who wrote a guide-book (believe it or not) one of whose chief accomplishments is to explain in clear and intelligible language the theological bases of the disputes between Christian sects of fourth and fifth century Alexandria. Lawrence Durrell, stationed there in World War II, turned his experiences -- or his fantasies -- into the syrupy prose of The Alexandrian Quartet. But the literary spirit of Alexandria, in modern times at least (how many works of Alexandrian authors of the past have vanished?), must be C. P. Cavafy.

Cavafy was educated in Britain, and apparently spoke Greek with a British accent. My Level 5 Greek teacher's family had a close friend who knew Cavafy well in Alexandria; Cavafy used to have dinner with them once a month. He reported that Cavafy was "extremely ugly," an opinion my teacher shared (on the basis of his photographs). Cavafy lived out his adult life in Alexandria, writing poetry and -- most notoriously -- seeking out liaisons with young men. Such practices seem to have been rather more tolerated, as long as kept quiet, in Alexandria in the old days; my teacher's family friend said that Cavafy had never once alluded to his predilections. But I suppose this degree of tolerance accounts in part for the appeal of Alexandria to E. M. Forster, whose Alexandria. A Guide, published originally in 000-000 on the basis of his visits there, remains the best introduction to the city. (Did he meet Cavafy? There is a play dying to be written about a sexual encounter between the two writers, isn't there?)

A colleague provided me with a copy of a poem by Cavafy that was never included in his collected works:

Gnwrivsmata

Allwn mevn gavr avllai cwvrai karpwvn te

kai tovkwn euvforoi : ivppo" deiknuvei ton

Qettalovn. . . : karpov" de thvsde th" povlew"

lovgo" kai avnqrwpo"

IMERIOS

To gnwrivsmata th" evcei kavqe cwvra.

Idion eivnai Qessalouv ivppoi kai ippasi;a :

anadeiknuvei tou polevmou wvra

ton Spartiavthn : evcei h Mhdiva

thn travpezan metav twvn aidesmavtwn :

kovmh deiknuvei Kevltou", tou" Assurivou" pwvgwn.

Ai de Aqhvnai w" gnwrivsmata twn

ton Anqrwpon evcousi kai ton Lovgon.

KABAFHS

Some brief bibliography

There are lots of editions of Cavafy's poems. In Greek I read the two volume Ta Poiemata, edited by G. P. Sabbides, originally published in 1963. Likewise many translators have tried their hand at Cavafy's poems, most recently Evangelos Sachperoglou, who offers 154 Poems in a volume published in Athens in 2003. A recent book that sets Cavafy in his Alexandrine context is Cavafy's Alexandria, by Edmund Keeley (Princeton 1995). Jane Lagoudis Pichin in Alexandria Still. Forster, Durrell, and Cavafy (Princeton 1999) sets the three writers in their Alexandrian context.

May 000-000, 2004

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