To The Poet, The Eminent 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.


StarSpared

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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-13d'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-Led [in Chrismation, Januarius]