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One and a half century has passed since Cavafy was born. Cavafy is admired by many poets as with a very minimalistic way, he portraits experiences from his life and figures from the Greek and Roman history. The Onassis Cultural Centre, celebrating 150 years after his birth, makes known the work of the Alexandrian poet, to the Greek audience. Cavafy was born in Alexandria, Egypt. He was a scion of a Greek rich merchant family, which had settled in Alexandria in the 1850s.

He spent his childhood in England and he travelled many times to Istanbul and to Athens, throughout his life. After his family faced a long period of bankruptcy, he worked as a journalist and civil servant in Alexandria. During his life, he received little recognition as his poemshad a very personal nature. He met the British novelist, Forster, in 1919 and because of him he was introduced to the British audience. After 1922, a new generation of atheist Greek poets was influenced by Cavafy’s work and he started to gain some acceptance.He died of cancer of the larynx in 1933. After his death, he received a great recognition and nowadays he is considered to be one of the greatest Greek poets. In his work, his poetic images are inspired by his personal experiences and by the Greek history, especially from the Hellenistic Era, as he lived in Alexandria. His poem ‘Ithaca’ is his most known poem which is influenced by Homer’s Odyssey. In this poem, Cavafy emphasises the importance of the journey itself. He wrote more than 150 poems, throughout his life. Cavafy, in his poetry, has a nostalgic tone.

He is well-known for his images which have a sensual nature and for his mortal figures. Most of his poems are oriented and focused in Alexandria. Many have said, like the Greek poet G. Seferis, that ‘outside his poems Cavafy does not exist’. Cavafy had a monotonous life as he worked for 30 years in the municipal bureaucracy and his only outlet was writing poetry.In order to emphasise his work, the Onassis Cultural Centre acquaints his poems to the public as we see verses of his poems in metro stations and in buses. The Greek audience is not very familiar with Cavafy’s poetry and starting the 14thof October, the Onassis Cultural Centre was undertaken to make his work known. It has completed this suspension by a ‘pop’ style.

However, many are against this campaign as his poetry has many ‘traps’ and it can be misunderstood. For example, the verse ‘haste is a dangerous thing’ from the poem ‘In a Large Greek Colony, 200 B.C.’ was the cause for the reaction against the campaign but the complete verse is ‘let’s not be too hasty: haste is a dangerous thing’. For Cavafy, haste does not mean violence but it means urgency. Some saw it as disinformation. However, most people considered it as an opportunity to discuss about his poetry and to determine what he actually means, despite the fact that the verses were chosen randomly.

Margarita Papathanassiou .

Year of Cavafy: Greece celebrates 150 years after the birth of the Alexandrian poet

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