I really wanted to say more than this, but this wretched platform defeated me: but what an excellent post! Anything by Cavafy deserves attention and the piece set to Beethoven was enthralling, even if I didn’t understand a word. But, after all, I had your explanation and translation. Thank you.
Modern Greek poetry is not as well-known as it should be; if you do not know them, I would start with O. Elytis and Y. Seféris (both Noble laureates, incidentally).
It is a sort of retort to Cavafy's more famous Waiting for the Barbarians, don’t you think? It fairly hops along, too, metre-wise. I remember encountering various satraps in my Ancient History A level course. Our rather immature class of nine sniggered when our teacher mentioned a certain Pissuthnes, satrap of Lydia, and he added, without a breath. ‘…his friends called him Uthnes’.
A stirring poem. It is an apt analogy of life as we journey through from the start thinking we need to be or perform a certain way, until the middle when we question, and finally reach the point of understanding about who we are and why we are here.
Oh, what a magnificent poem this is...
I really wanted to say more than this, but this wretched platform defeated me: but what an excellent post! Anything by Cavafy deserves attention and the piece set to Beethoven was enthralling, even if I didn’t understand a word. But, after all, I had your explanation and translation. Thank you.
Modern Greek poetry is not as well-known as it should be; if you do not know them, I would start with O. Elytis and Y. Seféris (both Noble laureates, incidentally).
It is a sort of retort to Cavafy's more famous Waiting for the Barbarians, don’t you think? It fairly hops along, too, metre-wise. I remember encountering various satraps in my Ancient History A level course. Our rather immature class of nine sniggered when our teacher mentioned a certain Pissuthnes, satrap of Lydia, and he added, without a breath. ‘…his friends called him Uthnes’.
A stirring poem. It is an apt analogy of life as we journey through from the start thinking we need to be or perform a certain way, until the middle when we question, and finally reach the point of understanding about who we are and why we are here.
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