Constantine P. Cavafy

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Constantine P. Cavafy (also Konstantin or Konstantinos Kavafis, or Kavaphes), b. 1863, d. 1933 was among the 20th century's most important poets, though he is relatively little known in the English speaking world. He was instrumental to the revival and recognition of Greek poetry both at home and abroad. His poems were typically concise but intimate portraits of real or literary individuals and societies that played a role in Greek culture; uncertainty about the future, sensual pleasures, the moral character and psychology of individuals, homosexuality and nostalgia are some of the defining themes. A recluse, he was virtually unknown until late in his life. Besides his subjects, unconventional for the time, his poems also exhibit a skilled and versatile craftsmanship, which is lost in translations. He spent most of his life in Alexandria.

Short bio: http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?45442B7C000C050601

Some poems: http://users.hol.gr/~barbanis/cavafy/

Article in The New Criterion: http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/12/jan94/epstein.htm

The most effective translation of Cavafy into English is Rae Dalven's "The Complete Poems of Cavafy", published by Harvest/ Harcourt Brace. A later translation by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savidis, titled "C. P. Cavafy: Collected Poems" is published by Princeton. Robert Liddell's evocative book "Cavafy" is probably the only biography of the poet in English.