Constantine P Cavafy

I was introduced to Constantine P Cavafy's poetry through a friends profile on a website. I read a few of his poems online and I fell in love. The raw sensuality and simplicity of the poetry struck me.  He was born of Greek parents in Egypt and worked as a Civil servant. His poetry was in Greek but translations are available online. Cavafy was  homosexual and his most well known relationship was with Alexander Singopolous. I am posting a few of his poems here and more can be found online.

Desires

 

Like beautiful bodies of the dead, who had not grown old

and they shut them with tears, in a magnificent mausoleum,

with roses at the head and jasmine at the feet --

that is how desires look that have passed

without fulfillment; without one of them having achieved

a night of sensual delight, or a moonlit morn. 

Body Remember

Body, remember not only how much you were loved

not only the beds you lay on. 

but also those desires glowing openly 

in eyes that looked at you, 

trembling for you in voices- 

only some chance obstacle frustrated them. 

Now that it's all finally in the past, 

it seems almost as if you gave yourself 

to those desires too-how they glowed, 

remember, in eyes that looked at you, 

remember, body, how they trembled for you in those voices. 

He vows

 

Every so often he vows to start a better life.

But when night comes with her own counsels,

with her compromises, and with her promises;

but when night comes with her own power

of the body that wants and demands, he returns,

forlorn, to the same fatal joy. 

One Night

 

The room was penurious and common,

Hidden over a disreputable tavern,

The alley could be seen from the window,

Unclean and narrow. From below

Came the voices of a few workmen

Who were playing cards and having a good time.

There on the vulgar on the humble bed

I had the body of love, I had the lips,

The sensuous, the rosy lips of wine,

Rosy with such a wine, that even now

Here as I write, after so many years,

In my solitary house, I am drunk again. 

Photo credits: All the paintings are from artists at deviantart and if the artist wants I'll remove them from the blog.