Cavafy was concise and accurate; so much so that he would work on each of his verses again and again making sure that it was in its final and perfect form before he would mail it to anyone; most of this of course is lost in the translation, as such an element in writing is impossible to replicate in another language. He drew most of his inspiration for the historical poems from the first and second centuries B.C. and the Hellinistic Era of Alexandria around and after the days of Alexander the Great. His love poems were entirely devoted to adult love between men; there is not a single mention of a woman as the subject of erotic love in his poems. The image of the kore, an erotic subject of other poets, is absent from his stanzas. Reference to women in Cavafy's work is only about older, mature and gracious figures playing out their roles in the Hellinistic era or Byzantium's golden age. Cavafy wrote mostly in free verse although there were times when he used rhyme to emphasize irony; the number of syllables per verse varied from ten to seventeen. Cavafy's inspiration derives from many different subjects; in one of the well known poems, Ithaka, he explores, like Odysseus on his return to his home island after the Trojan War, the pleasure and importance of the way to a goal rather than the goal itself, and shows that the process of achieving something is important because of all the experience it makes possible.

This self-biographical note of Constantine P. Cavafy or Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, was published in 1924 in the celebratory issue of the magazine "New Art"."I am from Constantinople by descent, but I was born in Alexandria-at a house on Seriph Street; I left at a young age and spent a lot of years of my childhood in England. I visited that country later on as an adult although for a short period of time. I also lived in France. During my adolescence I lived in Constantinople for about two years. I haven't visited Greece for a lot of years.My last employment was as a clerk at a Government office under the Ministry of Public works of Egypt. I speak English, French, and some Italian."

Constantine P. Cavafy's profile page

Manolis (Emmanuel Aligizakis) was born in the small village Kolibari west of Chania on the Greek island of Crete in 1947. At a young age his family moved first to Thessaloniki and then to Athens where he was educated, achieving a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Sciences at the Panteion University of Athens. He served in the armed forces for two years, and emigrated to Vancouver in 1973, where he worked in several different jobs over the years. He attended Simon Fraser University for a year, taking English Literature in a non-degree program. He has written three novels and a large number of collections of poetry, which are slowly appearing as published works. Various articles, poems and short stories in Greek as well as in English have appeared in various magazines and newspapers in Canada, United States, Australia and Greece. After working as an iron worker, train labourer, taxi driver and stock broker, he now lives in White Rock where he spends his time writing, gardening and traveling. In 2006 he founded Libros Libertad, an unorthodox and independent publishing company in Surrey, BC with the goal of publishing literary books.

Manolis Aligizakis' profile page

This is a beautiful collection of poems by one of the most important Greek poets, Constantine Cavafy, translated from the original text by Manolis, another very talented Greek-Canadian poet. Translations are most effective when they pay attention to the contextual integration of the author's culture, its mannerisms, the resonance and reach of the words, making the flow from one language to the other appear natural, not acquired. When a poet translates another poet's work, it is like a musical exchange. This is exactly what Manolis did with Cavafy's poetry: unwrapping creatively the pulse and the rhythm of the original text. He doesn't disturb the breathing and fulgurations of this melodious voice from Alexandria. Actually, he joins these timeless songs which are Cavafy's poems, and sings along in a duet that bridges over from Greek into English in the most harmonious manner.

Eduardo B. Pinto, author of Travelling with Shadows