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Constantine P. Cavafy (;〔''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', HarperCollins Publishers, 2003: "Cavafy"〕 also known as Konstantin or Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, or Kavaphes; (ギリシア語:Κωνσταντίνος Π. Καβάφης); April 29 (April 17, OS), 1863 – April 29, 1933) was an ethnic Greek poet who lived in Alexandria and worked as a journalist and civil servant. He wrote 154 poems; dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form. During his life, he consistently refused to formally publish his work and preferred to share them through local newspapers and magazines, or even print them out himself and give them away to anyone interested. His most important poetry was written after his fortieth birthday and officially published two years after his death. His work was internationally recognised, as several of them were translated in other languages. ==Biography== Cavafy was born in 1863 in Alexandria, Egypt, to Greek parents, and was baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church. His father's name was , ''Petros Ioannēs'' —hence the ''Petrou'' patronymic (GEN) in his name— and his mother's ''Charicleia'' (Greek: ; née , ''Georgakē Photiadē''). His father was a prosperous importer-exporter who had lived in England in earlier years and acquired British nationality. After his father died in 1870, Cavafy and his family settled for a while in Liverpool in England. In 1876, his family faced financial problems due to the Long Depression of 1873, so, by 1877, they had to move back to Alexandria. In 1882, disturbances in Alexandria caused the family to move again, though temporarily, to Constantinople. This was the year when a revolt broke out in Alexandria against the Anglo-French control of Egypt, thus precipitating the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. Alexandria was bombarded by a British fleet, and the family apartment at Ramleh was burned. In 1885, Cavafy returned to Alexandria, where he lived for the rest of his life. His first work was as a journalist; then he took a position with the British-run Egyptian Ministry of Public Works for thirty years. (Egypt was a British protectorate until 1926.) He published his poetry from 1891 to 1904 in the form of broadsheets, and only for his close friends. Any acclaim he was to receive came mainly from within the Greek community of Alexandria. Eventually, in 1903, he was introduced to mainland-Greek literary circles through a favourable review by Xenopoulos. He received little recognition because his style differed markedly from the then-mainstream Greek poetry. It was only twenty years later, after the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), that a new generation of almost nihilist poets (e.g. Karyotakis) would find inspiration in Cavafy's work. A biographical note written by Cavafy reads as follows: :"I am from Constantinople by descent, but I was born in Alexandria—at a house on Seriph Street; I left very young, and spent much of my childhood in England. Subsequently I visited this country as an adult, but for a short period of time. I have also lived in France. During my adolescence I lived over two years in Constantinople. It has been many years since I last visited Greece. My last employment was as a clerk at a government office under the Ministry of Public Works of Egypt. I know English, French, and a little Italian." He died of cancer of the larynx on April 29, 1933, his 70th birthday. Since his death, Cavafy's reputation has grown. He is now considered one of the finest modern Greek poets. His poetry is taught at schools in mainland Greece and Cyprus, and in universities around the world. E. M. Forster knew him personally and wrote a memoir of him, contained in his book ''Alexandria''. Forster, Arnold Toynbee, and T. S. Eliot were among the earliest promoters of Cavafy in the English-speaking world before the Second World War. In 1966, David Hockney made a series of prints to illustrate a selection of Cavafy's poems, including ''In the dull village''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Constantine P. Cavafy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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