I'm typing something relative to Greek Mythology and Homers Odyssey and I'm trying to reference a poet with the name of Kavafee, I'm not sure of the correct spelling or where to find information on him, so if anyone can help I would appreciate it.

He's a modern Greek poet. I don't know his work well.

C.P. Cavafy
(1863-1933) Ithaka

Translated by
Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard

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Other poems of Cavafy...

Ithaka

Che fece ... il gran rifiuto

Thermopylae

Exiles

The City




As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.


Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.


Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.


And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.


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NOTES:

First version probably writtem January 1894.
Final version written October 1910, and published November 1911.




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Thanks Peter, Google's got a whole list of sites about him:

[www.google.com]

This one seems to be the best, scroll down the page to find a collection of his poetry: [cavafis.compupress.gr]


Les



Post Edited (11-12-04 04:46)

the name is:C.P.Cavafy

The poem is "Ithaka"

read the "Barbarians" or the "Phillelin"

Good luck and enjoy Cavafy 's poetry