Cavafy, Constantine
kävä´fēs), 1863–1933, Greek poet. He spent most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt. Although he published little work, he is regarded as one of the foremost modern Greek poets. Skeptical and nonconformist, he was critical of Christian and nationalistic morality and was one of the first to write openly about homosexuality. Among his best-known poems are “The City” and “Waiting for the Barbarians.” His Collected Poems have been published in a number of English translations.
See memoir and translations by M. Kolaitis (1980); studies by K. Kapre-Karka (1982), G. Jusdanis (1987), and J. P. Anton (1995).
