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Some unknown sources of inspiration in the works of C.P. Cavafy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Georgios Fatouros
Georgios Fatouros*
Affiliation:
Berlin
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Abstract

The sources of inspiration concerning the poems of C.P. Cavafy are not known in their whole scope. In the following pages some eight poems of the Alexandrian poet are discussed, the sources of which were either completely unknown or only partly recognized. The cases in question do not exhaust this topic.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 24 , 2000 , pp. 211 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2000

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Footnotes

*

For the English translation from the German I wish to thank Käthe Fatouros and Jeffrey Featherstone.

References

1. Malanos, T., ‘O ποιητης Κ.Π. Καβάφης: ‘О άνθρωπος και то ‘épyo rov. Έκδοση συμπληρωμένη και όριστική (Athens 21957) 293 Google Scholar.

2. As does, M. Peri, in Strutture in Kavafis (Padova 1976)Google Scholar (‘fonte’).

3. Text in: Savvidis, G.P., K.Π. Καβάφη, Та ποιήματα, I. (1897-1918) (Athens 1995) 41ffGoogle Scholar. (11963,35ff.).

4. Bowra, C.M., The Creative Experiment (New York 1948) 40ffGoogle Scholar.; T. Malanos, loc. cit. 308ff. Cf. further Peridis, M., ‘О βίος και то ‘έργο τοΰ Κωνστ. Καβάφη (Athens 1948) 207 Google Scholar; Ilinskaya, S., Κ.Π. Καβάφης: Ot δρόμοι προς τον ρεαλισμο στήν ποίηση τοΰ 20οϋ α’ιώνα (Athens 1983) 179ffGoogle Scholar.; Keeley, E., Cavafy’s Alexandria: Study of a Myth in Progress (Cambridge, Mass. 1976) 94 Google Scholar.

5. Chap. 54 (p.ll6ff. Ziegler-Gärtner).

6. As above 41.

7. ‘Ρωμάίκή Ίστορία, Book 49, Chap. 41 (ed. Ph.U. Boissevain).

8. We read of a similar case in the Chronicle of John Malalas 12, 12 (p.218, 23ff. Thurn): The rich Antiochian Artabanes entertains his fellow-citizens in the suburb of Daphne.

9. Text in: G.P. Savvidis, loc. cit. I 82 (1963) 78.

10. Cf. T. Malanos, loc. cit. 322ff.; Jusdanis, G., The Poetics of Cavafy: Textuality, Eroticism, History (Princeton 1987) 129ffGoogle Scholar.; Peri, M., Quatro saggi su Kavafis (Milan 1977) 145ffGoogle Scholar. ‘Musical’ analysis of the poem by Dalmati, M., in Έποχέζ 2 (1963) 66 Google Scholar.

11. According to the numbering of Savvidis, loc. cit., the first six verses. The angular brackets, inserted in the poem by Cavafy, are obviously meant to give it an aspect of verisimilitude. Particular significance, regarding the interpretation of the poem, is given to these brackets by G. Savvidis, P., in Έποχεζ 18 (1964) 57 Google Scholar n.10.

12. Epistolographi Graeci, recensuit ... Rudolphus Hercher (Paris 1873) 654 (ep.36). Cf. further A. Garzya-D. Roques, Synésios de Cyrène, Correspondance II. Paris 2000, 36 (ep.33).

13. ibid. 638 (ep.l); cf. Garzya-Roques ibid. 1 (ep.l).

14. Naturally, the name Kastrikios had to be changed, not least because of the metre. Furthermore, according to Cavafy, Leukios died at the age of 27 years (1.5), the same age as Aimilianos Monae in the poem under the same title (1.12). But in any case there seems to be here no particular intention on the part of the poet, who appears to have a preference for young men in their twenties: in his poems we come across young men of 22 years three times, 23 years five times, 24 years three times, 25 years four times, 27 years twice, 28 years once and 29 years three times (it would be excessive to cite here all the relevant cases).

15. Text in: G.P. Savvidis, loc. cit. (note 3) I 29f. (4963,23f.).

16. See Seferis, G., Αοκψές, I. (Athens 3 974) 328 Google Scholar; Capri-Karka, C., Love and the Symbolic Journey in the Poetry of Cavafy, Eliot and Seferis (New York 1982) 19 Google Scholar.

17. Cf. E. Keeley, op. cit. 177 n.25, further S. Ilinskaya, op. cit. 142f.; Risva, M., La pensée politique de Constantin Cavafy (Collection Néo-hellénique. Paris 1981) 26fGoogle Scholar.; M. Peridis, op. cit. (note 4) 179.

18. op. cit. 304f.

19. Cf. the text of Petronius’s poem:

Exhortatio ad Ulyssem Linque tuas sedes, alienaque littora quaere, o juvenis! major rerum tibi nascitur ordo. Ne succumbe malis: te noverit ultimus Ister, te Boreas gelidus, securaque regna Canopi, quique renescentem Phoebum, cernuntque cadentem. Major in externas Ithacus descendat arenas.

20. See Stanford, W.B., The Ulysses Theme: A Study in the Adaptability of a Traditional Hero (Oxford 2 1963)Google Scholar.

21. A caricature of Odysseus already appears in Petronius’s ‘Satyricon’. Both poems, ‘Exhortatio ad Ulyssem’ and ‘Satyricon’, are not discussed or mentioned in W.B. Stanford, op. cit.

22. According to others, the poem ‘Ulysses’ by A. Tennyson ought to be considered as the source of inspiration of #“Ιθάκη’; cf.Jusdanis, G., ‘Cavafy, Tennyson and the Overcoming of Influence’, BMGS 8 (1982-1983) 127fGoogle Scholar. See, however, Friar, K., Modem Greek Poetry (New York 1973) 25 Google Scholar; C. Capri-Karka, op. cit. 56. Cf. further W.B. Stanford, op. cit. 202f. Savvidis, G.P., for no understandable reason, had no high opinion of “Ιθάκη’: Μικρά Καβαφικά, II (Athens 1987) 189fGoogle Scholar. The central idea of the poem that life offers no concrete final purpose, was later excessively used by N. Kazantzakis in his “Οδΰσσεια’; see W.B. Stanford, op. cit. 222f. Cf. further G. Jusdanis, The Poetics, op. cit. 143f.

23. Cf. ep.32 (p.654), ep.50 (p.661), ep.121 (p.711), ep.137 (p.722f), ep.139 (p.724), ep.142 (p.726), ep.148 (p.731f.), ep.158 (p.738).

24. I know only one other passage in Greek literature, in which both these names occur: Thuc.6,2,1 #παλαιότατοι μεν λένονται έν μέρει rivi тѓјс χώρας Κΰκλωπες και Лаштриуоуєс οίκήσαι. Since further on Thucydides writes ώς ποιηταΐς τε εϊρηται, it is obvious that Synesius had in mind these lines of the Greek historian as he wrote the passage above; cf. his clause ή που θαυμαστώς ¿tv ήσεν ή ποίησις. In light of the poet’s conviction that one will not meet the giants mentioned beforehand and the angry Poseidon, Peridis, loc. cit., asks what then remains of the adventures (1.3). Such questions, however, in connection with poetry are naïve.

25. Text in: G.P. Savvidis, op. cit. (note 3) II 52 (1964,46).

26. See T. Malarios, op. cit. 367f.; M. Pendis, op. cit. 204; M. Risva, op. cit. 57f.

27. For the meaning of the word Ίταλιώτης, see Liddell-Scott-Jones s.v., further Herod.4,15; Thuc.6,44.

28. loc. cit. 504ff.

29. See Bowersock, G.W., ‘The Julian Poems of C.P. Cavafy’, BMGS 7 (1981) 89ffGoogle Scholar.; cf. also Pinchin, J. Lagoudis, Alexandria Still: Forster, Durrell, and Cavafy (Princeton N.J. 1977) 65ffGoogle Scholar.; E. Keeley, op. cit. 121f. The text of the poem 3‘O Ίουλιανος έν rote μυστηρίοκτ in: Savvidis, G.P., Κ.Π. Καβάφη, Άνέκδοτα ποιήματα, 1882-1923 (Athens 1968) 91fGoogle Scholar.; cf. Bowersock 95f. Bowersock 90f. speaks of 12 Julian poems, among which however we must also count those not published.

30. Text in: G.P. Savvidis, op. cit. (note 3) II 41 (11964,35). See further G.W. Bowersock, loc. cit. 98; T. Malanos, op. cit. 359f. Malanos 360 presumes that Cavafy had in mind not Julian’s letter 62, but a certain passage in the book of Allard, P., Julien l’Apostat, Bd.II (Stadia historica 102. Paris 3 1908)Google Scholar, 3me Partie, where we also find the clause quoted in the beginning of the poem. Cavafy’s philological meticulousness, however, excludes the possibility that the poet had not read the text: Bowersock 96f. Cf. further Lavagnini, R., ‘The Unpublished Drafts of Five Poems on Julian the Apostate by C.P. Cavafy’, BMGS 7 (1981) 76 Google Scholar.

31. The expression #οσο ή’θελεν (‘may he ... as much as he wished’) at the beginning of the line alludes very successfully to the uselessness of Julian’s efforts. From an aesthetic point of view shows the poem not very fine poetical taste.

32. Julian’s ep.62 has come down to us only in part; see Weis, B.K., Julian, , Briefe (Munich 1973) 306fGoogle Scholar.

33. For the poet’s religious belief see Liddell, R., Cavafy: A Critical Biography (London 1974) 196ffGoogle Scholar.; Seferis, G., A Poet’s Journal: Days of 1945-1951 (Cambridge 1974) 141 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Savvidis, G.P., #Πάνω νερά (Athens 1973) 115fGoogle Scholar. (= Μικρά Καβαφικά, I [Athens 1985] 149f.); E. Keeley, op. cit. 184.

34. Text in: G.P. Savvidis, op. cit. (note 3) I 78 (11963,74).

35. Cf. C. Capri-Karka, op. cit. 73. The influence of S. Mallarmé, who published three poems under the title ‘Tombeau’ between 1876 and 1897, seems to be alluded to by Savvidis, G.P., in Έποχές 18 (1964) 62 Google Scholar n.40.

36. Cf. C. Capri-Karka, loc. cit. 74.

37. Cf., e.g., the title ‘Z’ of a novel by V. Vasilikos.

38. Cf. M. Peri, op. cit. 35ff.; G. Jusdanis, The Poetics, op. cit. 119ff. Text in: G.P. Savvidis , op. cit. (note 3) I 47 (11963,43).

39. Anth.Gr.7,594; cf. T. Malanos, op. cit. 159.

40. Strutture in Kavafis (Padova 1976) 24ff.

41. Moreover, there are also other epigrams in the Greek Anthology with the motif ‘memory in one’s work’; see for instance Anth.Gr.7,73; 137.

42. Text in: G.P. Savvidis, op. cit. (note 3) I 51 (11963,46).

43. Book VII (p.220,10ff., ed. J.-L. van Dieten).

44. p.335 ed. H. Thurn; cf.Fatouros, G., #3Άπαλείφω δεκατέσσαρα: Zu Johannes Malałaś Chronographie, in: Lesarten. Festschrift für Athanasios Kambylis zum 70. Geburtstag, eds. Vassis, I., Henrich, G.S., Reinsch, D.R. (Berlin-New York 1998) 61ffGoogle Scholar.

45. Cavafy spent a long period of his childhood in England; see Νέα Τέχνη 7-10 (1924) 119; Νέα Έστία 74 (1963) 1485. For the familiarity of the poet with the work of Shakespeare, see Savvidis, G.P., MiKpà Καβαφικά, II (Athens 1987) 25 Google Scholar.

46. Text in: G.P. Savvidis, op. cit. (note 3) I 24 (4963,18).

47. Cf. E. Keeley, op. cit. (note 4) 177.

48. Chap. 63; so already T. Malanos, op. cit. 302f.