The barbarians arrive today: poems & prose

by Constantinos P. Cavafy, Evan Jones (Translation)

Complete Poems of one of the most distinguished Greek-language poets of the 20th century, translated by Greek-Canadian poet and critic Evan Jones.

Genres: Poetry

338 pages, Paperback

Published November 26, 2020

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

[Vesna]

Abandoned at ca. 60% - of course, not because of the sublime Cavafy - but for the translator's approach. At times excessively modernized translations didn't work for me nor did I appreciate the translator occasionally adjusting the original text by inserting his own thoughts. Thematic, rather than chronological, organization is refreshing but the thematic classification was borrowed from another study not properly credited. Didn't appreciate that either.

P.S. I was concerned that I might have been too harsh, after all I don't know modern Greek. To my relief, I've just read a scathing review by David Ricks, an outstanding scholar in Greek studies and poetry. He goes much further, reporting, in addition to some of the issues I also had, numerous translating errors, some of which were even reversing the meaning of the original text.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me the essential Cavafy poems are those “set” in Hellenistic, Roman or Byzantine times—some rooted in mythology, but most reflecting historical or ordinary lives in those eras. The perhaps more famous “erotic” poems seem to me mostly not to work—to be too flat and same-y, almost confessional (though not in the mid-20th-century sense) or occasional, like the poems poets laureate feel compelled to write. These are perhaps the fifth (sixth?) versions of Cavafy I’ve read, and the mostly work very well, though a poem like “Ionia,” probably the first Cavafy I ever read, feels clumsy or almost mundane compared to other translations. Is that because Jones’s version is more literal, or simply because he didn’t want to sound too much like his predecessors? I don’t know.