To The Poet, Constantine Cavafy [XLIX]

I understand, now, Cavafy, your anguish

of separation---unable to achieve

nearness to the Beloved, deprived of his

presence as retained in memory,

or else fantasy.


J-Called

Author's Notes/Comments: 

I had not fully comprehended the anguish of which Cavafy wrote, until recently.  But he found a coping mechanism, in the poem, "Very Seldom," (in the translation by Keeley and Sherrard).

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patriciajj's picture

As I read the pain-torn poem

As I read the pain-torn poem by Cavafy you referenced, I sensed shades of your own travail as expressed in many of your excellent poems. A worthy tribute to a legendary talent.

 
S74rw4rd's picture

Thank you so very much for

Thank you so very much for that comment.  Looking at the several failed relationships and missed opportunities in his past, Cavafy found a way to redeem them by bringing what was beautiful (or instructive) in them into a lasting poetry in which others could, in a way, commune in his fellowship even after his soar had gone on to the stars.  In the last few days, I have been feeling my own massive list of failures and miss-outs very sharply.  I should like to think that the poems that emerge from that chaos can, provides, as Cavafy said, "a perception of the beautiful" to those who read them.


Starward