Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, usually known in English as
Constantine P Cavafy, was a major figure of modern Greek literature, considered
by many to be the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century.
Born in Alexandria on 29th April 1863 he spent most of his life in
the city, dying there on his 70th birthday, 29th April
1933. However, he spent a number of his formative early years in Liverpool.
His father, Peter John Cavafy, was prosperous merchant with
business interests in Constantinople, London, Manchester and Liverpool. From
about 1852 to 1854 he and his wife, Charicleia Georgaki (née Photiades) lived
at 33 Bedford Street South L7 before returning to Alexandria. Peter Cavafy died
young in 1870 and his widow decided that their financial situation required the
family to relocate to England. They moved between London and Liverpool, their
homes in Liverpool being 12 Balmoral Road L6 (c.1873-74) and 45 Huskisson
Street L8 just before they returned to Alexandria in September 1877.
Constantine Cavafy settled permanently in Alexandria in
1885, reacquiring his Greek citizenship and abandoning the British nationality
which his father had acquired in the 1840s.His early jobs included news
correspondent, work at the stock exchange and then as a clerk in the
British-run Ministry of Public Works, a post he held for some thirty years,
rising to high rank in the department. He eventually quit the post in 1922 to
concentrate on his poetry.
Cavafy was known and admired by many leading literary
figures including E M Forster and T S Eliot. Whilst his work is largely unknown
to most British audiences, his mark on popular culture is noticeably wide. The
singer Donovan featured one of Cavafy’s poems in his 1970 film There Is An
Ocean and Leonard Cohen transformed his poem The God Abandons Antony
into Alexandra Leaving, a song of lost love. Cavafy also appears as a
character in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet. You can find a reading of his poem Ithaka by Sean Connery on YouTube.
