Collected Poems by C.P. Cavafy, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
C.P. Cavafy felt that his poems fell into three categories: historical, philosophical, and hedonistic or sensual. Of course these categories are never entirely separate in poetry or in life, but one of the arresting things about Cavafy's work is that no matter which of these categories is at the fore, one always senses his unique consciousness hovering over it. His friend E.M. Forster described him as "a Greek gentleman in a straw hat, standing absolutely motionless at a slight angle to the universe." Whether Cavafy is surveying history, philosophy, or homoerotic sex, it's always from that slight angle. Cavafy wrote in Greek and was known for the care, precision, and craftsmanship which went into his work. Unfortunately, those of us who can't read Greek can only assume that much of this is lost in translation. Having said that, the spare simplicty of Cavafy in Keeley and Sherrard's version is effective: Their modernist precision seems just right. One can...