Clearing the Ground: C. P. Cavafy Poetry and Prose, 1902-1911

by Constantinos P. Cavafy, Martin McKinsey (translator)

Clearing the Ground illuminates a crucial decade of Cavafy’s artistic development, marked at one end by a period of personal crisis and near creative stasis, at the other by the poetic force of the celebrated “Ithaca.” The years in between are held together by the “Unpublished Notes on Poetics and Ethics.”

Part private confession, part public pronouncement, part journal entry, and philosophical pensée, these notes were recorded between 1902 and 1911. In some of them, according to the eminent critic G. P. Savidis, Cavafy attempted to formulate “thoughts and feelings never before uttered” in his own language — in certain cases, in any language.

The full body of the notes is correlated in this volume with the poetry Cavafy was writing contemporaneously — in particular the startling “hidden poems” begun in 1904. What emerges is a striking narrative of artistic and personal becoming.

The afterward by Martin McKinsey examines Cavafy’s sexuality and accompanying pressures in historical context and suggests the part they may have played in his poetic breakthrough.

This is a revelatory work for students and lovers of Cavafy — one of the great outsider poets of the twentieth century.

163 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Constantine P. Cavafy (also known as Konstantin or Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, or Kavaphes; Greek Κ.Π. Καβάφης) was a major Greek poet who worked as a journalist and civil servant. His consciously individual style earned him a place among the most important figures not only in Greek poetry, but in Western poetry as well. He has been called a skeptic and a neo-pagan. In his poetry he examines critically some aspects of Christianity, patriotism, and homosexuality, though he was not always comfortable with his role as a nonconformist. He published 154 poems; dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form. His most important poetry was written after his fortieth birthday.

Reviews

[Angelia Graf · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb combination of wonderful translations and insightful commentary packaged in an elegant paperback. A must for all lovers of Cavafy and a great introduction for newcomers to his work.