tfhese Ithakas mean.»
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a.tuflft" in
Cavafy
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Kl'l:-Ol'V MUSl'tllll ofArdl&ll'ology,TIll'
UniVt'fsity Must'um pI'Art, ,1I1d
till' 11,\fI"nI t",dwl" Cr,ldtJeltt'
l.ibr,uy,"II ,ll
till' Univt'rsity 01 Mkhi�,\n,from
Fd)rlMry 21 through M"y 5, 2(X)2.
This book was generously funded by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, the Foundation for Modern Greek Culture,
the Greek Ministry of Culture, President Lee Bollinger of the University of Michigan, and the Constantine
A.
Tsangadas Trust of theRackham Graduate School of the University of Michigan.
General Editors and authors of introductory texts Translators of prose text
New English translations of poems
Designer Artistic Advisor Design - Production Copyeditors
Artemis Leontis, Lauren E. Talalay and Keith Taylor Artemis Leontis, Vassilis Lambropoulos, Keith Taylor,
William
W.
Reader, Helen StavrouJohn Chioles, Alexander Nehamas, Keith Taylor, William
W.
ReaderFanis Zervas
Alexandra Charitatou «PELTI» Publications
Margaret Lourie, Alexandra Kalogirou (English), Alexandra Charitatou (Greek)
Credits and copyright notices for photographs, poems, and translations are
given in
a separate section entitled "Permissions."COPYRIGHT ©
2002
The Regents of the University of Michigan andHellenic Literary and Historical Archive (E.L.LA.)
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«
... what these Ithakas mean.»
Readings in Cavafy
«
... iz 'I(JaKe� ri oltpaivDVV.»
Avayvwaeu; arov KapaqJtl
Editors
Artemis Leontis, Lauren E. Talalay and Keith Taylor
EAAHNIKO AOrOTEXNIKO
KAI IrTOPIKO ApXEIO
HELLENIC LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ARCHIVE
T
here is a well-known photo of Cavafy looking the part of the perfect Greek gentleman, sitting not entirely at ease on a di van in his apartment in Rue Lepsius. The scene brings to mind Giorgio de Chirico'spainting
The Return of Ulysses (1968),
inwhich the center of the artist's flat is filled with the Homeric hero rowing ashore. We look at the demure Ca vafy , the clerk and stockbroker, and think of Cavafy's own Odyssean poem, "Ithaka, If perhaps the great
est poem of the twentieth century, and some how these images are ineluctably superim posed on each other.
We look at a second photo-this one a still life of Cavafy's apartment filled with heavy-set furniture of the "Victorian" age, a family lega cy. The scene, with its surface of quiet domes ticity, evokes another de Chirico painting,
Furniture
inthe Valley (1966),
the chairs and wardrobes of the artist relocated to an Arcadi an valley with classical temple and broken col umn in the background, an homage to the dis placement of cosmopolitan families, like his own, and like Cavafy's-"homeless" families who worked in the service of diplomacy or global trading firms-whose belongings were forever being relocated somewhere else.Born in Alexandria
(1863),
raised in Lon don(1872-79),
resident for a time in Constantinople
(1882-85),
returning finally toALexandria
(1885),
Cavafy's life anticipatedthe f
o
rt
une
s of the modern Greek merchantdiasl'ora, sliding from
the
c.:>mfortabie wealth of tlieBritish
COIlOI1tr
ade;l1to the gcntl'l'i
pm)I'rfy of AII'Xtlfldrill. AI!'xt1lltiria ill the fl(lt'lllil'llt n'
l
lll l ,.y williI(' n'lI1I'mhl'rl'tlIJYI'os
It'rilll 'or
4 Jill'tI,i"g: it
it'll" ii'''''''!'
l 'oll .... lallt illt'Cavafy lived. Yet Cavafy at midlife had mixed feelings about a city that, after all, the Ot tomans only recently had brought back to life as a free port, all its ancient splendor long gone. "I'll go to another country, go to anoth er shore, find another city better than this one
• • •11 protests the poet exiled from the great
centers of his youth. "How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?" Yet the balance of Cavafy's poetry is a retort to self-pity, and a lesson in how to live outside of the glittering center. When the poet complains of how "wherever I turn, wherever I look,
1
see the black ruin of my life," his daimon tells him "you won't find a new country, won't find another shore." London is too expensive and Constantinople too impolitic. Instead "this city will always pursue you. You'll walk the same streets, grow old/
in the same neighbor hoods, turn gray in those same houses . . ." The judgment of the daimon is unequivocal: "You'll always end-up in this city. Don't hope for things elsewhere. IIWhat advice for a poet! Don't hope for things elsewhere. Cavafy took this to heart, perhaps because he thought that the damage was already done: "there's no ship for you, there's no road. Now that you've wasted your life here, in this small corner, you've de stroyed it everywhere in the world." But, of course, the opposite was true. Cavafy did not waste his life. How many of the celebrated writers of his day does anyone remember now? The judgment of time cares nothing for
contemporary reputation.
The obscureAlexlllldrillc
who
distributed mimeographed({�pil's
of
his
poellls to his frielld. ... ill lite ('lid {I'OIlIh,' Iwart 0/
tilt' j(lorldftln'PIT.
He did this by recasting his city. He creat ed a continuum between its checkered moder nity and its ancient days, setting the furni ture of his own time in a timeless classical frame. He invented a Hellenic kosmopolis, neither old nor new-filled with beauty and disappointment, art and longing, sensuality and political illusion. He submitted the city of his own day to Art: liThe setting of houses, cafes, the neighborhood that I've seen and walked through years on end: I created you while I was happy, while I was sad, with so many incidents, so many details" ("In the Same Place,"
1929).
In the end Alexandria became Cavafy's, as much as Athens became Plato's and London became Dickens's.
PETER MURPHY, Senior Lecturer in Communications, Victoria University of Wellington, is the author of Civic
Jus
ti
ce: From GreekAntiquity to the
Modern World(2001),
co-editor ofAgon, Logos,
Polis
(2001),
and was guest editor of the specialSAQ
issue on '/Friendship" (Winter1998).
He has taught at the New School for Social Research and Baylor University and has been a visiting researcher at Ohio State University.
He is coeditor of the international polit
ical and social theory journal T1/('�i,,,
I:I.''l't't/ ilnd hllS workl'd in tl1l' Internet
CONTENTS
111"",1\',. " , , ... , ... , ... '... ... ... 9
I,,'nldlldion ... '... 17
( ,I,",ItV'S Ill','
'
... 27\V /\I.I.S ... , ... 43
II II: II< ll{SI':S OF ACHILLES ... . ... ....
.
....
....
... 44I .I\lr"I\{·,' (;oldstein ... .... ...
.
....
45II II: H'N FRAL OF SARPEDON . ... . . ...
.
.....
... 471111·: 1:1 KS1' STEP . .... ... ... . ....
.
....
. 48t .
h.1rlc.'s (3,lxter
....
... ....
.....
....
... .49
A 'tEART'S
EPIC ....
...
..
....
... . . . ... ....
....
...
...50
AI"xandra
Charitatou ....
....
... ....
....
....
. . ... 51l;ROWING IN SPIRIT
.
....
..
... 52VaMitis Lambropoulos .. ...
.
....
.....
... ...53
VOICES
....
...... 54
Nicholas
Howe ....
....
....
...
.....
....
..
..:; ... 55�ns�t!&a���·:::::::::::::::::::�::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::�:::::::::::::�:::;�
.
WAITING FOR
THE BARB�RIANS ...,
:
.. i ....
...59
5
:��i�����::::::::::!::::;:;:;:::::::::::::::::::::::::::i:�::::::::'::::(�i{;�:!i::::.::::
i�
Anne
Waldman ...;
... � •....4
�.
;
....
·
••• ·.;;; ...
..
... ...:
.••;
... , •••••• : ... 63J'()SEIOONIANS ...
.
. ; ... :� ... .'�: ....
..
... :., .. ; ... ."... ... 64David
Konstan.
.. . . ....
.... �: ...
. ;· ...;
·
;
·
i�
'
�
...
....
.....
...
..
... : .... ; ... ;... 65THE FOOTSTEPS ....
.
... ' ... i� ....
..
...: ... :�
'
....
... �.. 66THE
RETINUE OF DIONY
SOS
... �., ... , ... 'i .. ;�;.� • • • ;:; ... .:�.. 67HIDDEN THINGS .
....
.....
....
....
... �.
.:.
,
�.:
...: ... �.;�.... 68
John Chioles ...
.
....
..
....
.....
... �,.,.; ... ;� ..��.��.�
... �.; ...,
. ·§
9
THE
CITY ... " ....
....
..
.... : ... ·.
...�.,·:
..;
.
,
;;.:; ... ,
:
79
:
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:::::::::::::: :::
:
:::::: ::::::::::::: ::: ::::: ::�:�::::':::::::��::::
::��:::�::�
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Rachel Harlas ... :
....
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:
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THE GO
D A�:AN
DON
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T@NY; ....
... ;�:.:,.' ... ;'H •. n-:.:� .. ,',", 76' EdwardHir$gh
.. � .. �.� ... ,.� ....
.. �.�: ... -... :.� ........
...: ..
;::
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. 77
�����c�j�ri}:�:,::E�:
::::
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;
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::::
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;::�
.
:: ::�:,:�:l::::::::::::::::::::::
::
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::::::::::::::
:�:
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:
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c
::::::::
��
ITHAKA
.:;_.; .•:
.::
... � ... � .. � ... �... .... ... ... 80Nicholas Samaras ... ... .... ';; ... 81 - 82 Richard Tillinghast ..
.
....
.... ... ... 83 - 84 IN CHURCH ., ... '... ... ... ... 85IONIC ... ... ... ... . . .. . ... ··
86
Tom An
d
r
e
ws.... ... ... ... ... ... 87Edmund
Keeley
...:
......
....
..
... ... . .. . ..
...
.88
FOR,
THE SHOP
....
....
" ... :... ... ... 89TOMROF THE GRAMMA
RIAN
LYSIAS ....
... :... 90Dimitris Dimiroulis ... ,.�: ... ;� .
.
.. ....
; ... � ... 91 LONG AG() ....
...
....
.
....
....
...92
Nicholas Delbal\c() ...
9
3Lauren E. TalaJ<lY
....
....
..
....
.....
....
... 94TOMB OF EVH.lON ...
.
....
....
....
.
...
... 95GOING BACK HOME
FROM
GREECE ....
... 96Artemis Leontis... ...
.
... 97PAINTED ...
.
... ....
...
....
... ... ... 98Alexander Nehamas ..
.
... ... ... ... 99SIMEON ... 100
Dirnitris Kalokyris ... ' ..
.
..
...
....
....
� ....
....
.....
... 101-102
MANUEL KOMNINOS ....
..
....
... : ... ,.,.-: ... 103I'VE
LOOKED SO
MUCH ...
.....
.....
... ��� ... ' .. � ... i . ... ; ••:
... 104
FORAMMONIS,
vv
HO
DIED AT29,
.
1N
610.
,
... ; ... ;-... , ... 105KAISARlON .
.
. ... �.:.� .•.. :" ... � ...:
... �.�.: ... :� ....
... : ... 106�ie!.�:::::::;:�l!::::::i.::\I!:::�:�i�:::::;:::!!\:::�I;��j�ll�
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m
Stathis'Gourgouris ...
'.;
.; ...,
....
. u ••• :�.';;; •• � ••• !�" ... ,.�;;.:; •.,
.,
... ; ... 117
MELANCHOLY
OF
JASON'KLEANQERf .":, POET IN KOMMAGlNI, J\,.;D. 595 ....
...
....
· ..
.... . ...;; ... 118
HE
HAD COME THERETOREAD
..
; ...:
; ... ; ... 119.
A BYZANTINE NOBLE
M
AN IN EXILE COMPOSING VERSES ..; .. 140
·Mimis Souliotis ... .. ...
.
....
.... :.,; ... ; ... 121IfiP$E WHO
FOUGHT FOR THE ACHAtAN LEAGUE .. . ... ;.12.2
John
p .. -·Anton ....
... ... ... . ..
..
....123
IN
ALEXANDRIA, 31B.C
... . ......
...
....
....
..
....
.... ;; 124. 'Peter
Bien
....
.... . ... ....
..
... ... '''''' ... 125 - 127,
IN
,
THE SAME SPACE ... 128'
:
Mark
Jarman . . . .....
....
...
.....
.... . .... . ....
... . . ... ... ... . . ....: ... 129
MYRIS:
ALEXANDRIA, A.D. 340... ; ... 131
Gre.
g
ory Jusdanis ..
... ....
.... . . ...
.....
.. . ....
..
... . ... . ......
... . . 132OFCOLORED GLASS
.
. . ... ... . ... . ... ... . ... . . ... . 133FOLLOWING THE RECIPE OF ANCIENT GRECO-SYRIAN MAGICIANS . ... ... . . . ...
.
....
....
....
... 134Pete
r
Jeffreys
.
... , ... 135 .IN THE YEAR 200 B.C . . ; ... (. ... 136
Paul Cartledge
... . . ... . ....
� ... : ... " ... ; ... 137KLEITOS' ILLNESS ... : . .. . ... i ..
.
... ....
..
. . . .....
.. ·.·.·; ... ,;138Index of Contributors ... ; ... : ... ;�,� ..
.
...
..;;
.
... ; ... 140
Index
of Poems ...
"''''''''''''''''''
..' . . . . ... ,., . . . . .. . . , .. . . ... ... :.· ... 141
Index
of
Images ... ;:
... �' ...
... �.; ....
....
... . . : ....
: .
... �: ... ... 142