CP Cavafy
Cavafy was born in the year 1863 in Alexandria, Egypt, to Greek parents. His father was a prosperous importer-exporter who had lived in England in earlier years and acquired British nationality. After his father died in 1870, Cavafy and his family settled, for a while, in Liverpool, UK; he moved back to Alexandria in 1877 after the economic problems the family had faced in the crash of 1876.
Disturbances there in 1882 caused the family again temporarily to move, this time to Constantinople. The fleets of England and France interfere with Egypt and Alexandria was bombarded by an English battleship (the family flat at Ramli was burned). In 1885 Cavafy returned to Alexandria, where he lived for the rest of his life. He worked at first as a journalist, then for the British-run Egyptian Ministry of Public Works for thirty years. (Egypt was a British protectorate until 1926.) From 1891 to 1904 he published his poetry in broadsheet form, only for his close friends, receiving whatever acclaim mainly within the Greek community in Alexandria. He was introduced to mainland-Greek literary circles through a favourable review by Xenopoulos in 1903, but got little recognition, his style being very different from then-mainstream Greek poetry. Only 20 years later, after the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War, a new generation of almost nihilist poets (e.g. Karyotakis) would find inspiration in Cavafy’s work. He died on April 29, 1933, his 70th birthday.
Since his death, Cavafy’s reputation has grown. He is now considered one of the finest modern Greek poets.
Cavafy was born in the year 1863 in Alexandria, Egypt, to Greek parents. His father was a prosperous importer-exporter who had lived in England in earlier years and acquired British nationality. After his father died in 1870, Cavafy and his family settled, for a while, in Liverpool, UK; he moved back to Alexandria in 1877 after the economic problems the family had faced in the crash of 1876.
Disturbances there in 1882 caused the family again temporarily to move, this time to Constantinople. The fleets of England and France interfere with Egypt and Alexandria was bombarded by an English battleship (the family flat at Ramli was burned). In 1885 Cavafy returned to Alexandria, where he lived for the rest of his life. He worked at first as a journalist, then for the British-run Egyptian Ministry of Public Works for thirty years. (Egypt was a British protectorate until 1926.) From 1891 to 1904 he published his poetry in broadsheet form, only for his close friends, receiving whatever acclaim mainly within the Greek community in Alexandria. He was introduced to mainland-Greek literary circles through a favourable review by Xenopoulos in 1903, but got little recognition, his style being very different from then-mainstream Greek poetry. Only 20 years later, after the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War, a new generation of almost nihilist poets (e.g. Karyotakis) would find inspiration in Cavafy’s work. He died on April 29, 1933, his 70th birthday.
Since his death, Cavafy’s reputation has grown. He is now considered one of the finest modern Greek poets.
