C. P. Cavafy - Quotes

Constantine P. Cavafy (1863 – 1933) was a renowned Greek poet who lived in Alexandria (Egypt) and worked as a journalist and civil servant. He published 154 poems; dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form. His most important poetry was written after his fortieth birthday. In one of his poems, he stated:

"We the Alexandrians, the Antiochians, the Selefkians, and the countless other Greeks of Egypt and Syria, and those in Media, and Persia, and all the rest: with our far-flung supremacy, our flexible policy of judicious integration, and our Common Greek Language which we carried as far as Bactria, as far as the Indians."

"Εμείς· οι Aλεξανδρείς, οι Aντιοχείς, οι Σελευκείς, κ’ οι πολυάριθμοι επίλοιποι Έλληνες Aιγύπτου και Συρίας, κ’ οι εν Μηδία, κ’ οι εν Περσίδι, κι όσοι άλλοι. Με τες εκτεταμένες επικράτειες, με την ποικίλη δράσι των στοχαστικών προσαρμογών. Και την Κοινήν Ελληνική Λαλιά ώς μέσα στην Βακτριανή την πήγαμεν, ώς τους Ινδούς."