Clearing the Ground: C P Cavafy, Poetry & Prose, 1902-1911

The Greek-Egyptian poet C. P. Cavafy (1863-1933) has come to be the most recognizable name in Modern Greek literature and a major figure in twentieth-century world poetry. His poems of the ancient Hellenized Middle East of peoples 'who were not of the Greek race, and who spoke the Greek language with Asiatic intonations and faulty syntax' have permanently altered our conception of the world of antiquity, and have struck a chord in their seeming relevance to our own times. Concurrently, his 'modern' poems depicting casual urban pickups and doomed erotic passion have been recognized as groundbreaking contributions to the development of contemporary gay consciousness.

Martin McKinsey teaches literature at the University of New Hampshire. His most recent translations from Modern Greek are Petrified Time: Poems from Makronisos by Yannis Ritsos (with Scott King, 2014); and Acropolis and Tram: Poems 1937-1977 by Nikos Engonopoulos (2008). He is also the author of Hellenism and the Postcolonial Imagination: Yeats, Cavafy, Walcott