![\"cp-cavafy.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cp-cavafy.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nWe were annihilated there at Salamis.
\nLet us say oá, oá, oá, oá, oá, oá.
\nEcbatana and Susa belong to us,
\nand Persepolis—the loveliest of places.
\nWhat were we doing there at Salamis
\nhauling our fleets and doing battle at sea?
\nNow we shall return to our Ecbatana
\nto our Persepolis, and to Susa.
\nWe shall go, but shan’t enjoy them as once we did.
\nOtototoi, otototoi: this battle at sea,
\nwhy must it be, why must it be sought out?
\nOtototoi, otototoi: why must
\nwe pick ourselves up, abandon everything,
\nand go there to do battle so wretchedly at sea.
\nWhy is it thus: as soon as someone owns
\nillustrious Ecbatana, and Susa,
\nand Persepolis, he straightaway assembles a fleet
\nand goes forth to battle the Greeks at sea.
\nAh yes, of course: let’s not say another word:
\notototoi, otototoi, otototoi.
\nAh yes, indeed: what’s left for us to say:
\noá, oá, oá, oá, oá, oá.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nI’m not 100% certain, but I think this Collected Poems<\/i><\/a>, translated by Daniel Mendelsohn, is the third major translation of C.P. Cavafy<\/a>‘s poems in the past decade; I first discovered his work through the versions Theo Theoharis published in 2001, and then Aliki Barnstone took a turn at them in 2006. (It’s been ages since I read the Theoharis, and I never did read the Barnstone, so I can’t tell you how they compare.) As part of its poem-a-day feature, Knopf has also put Mendelsohn’s translation of “On the Jetty<\/a>” online, and the New York Review of Books<\/i> has published Mendelsohn’s introduction to the collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Mendelsohn has also translated Cavafy’s unfinished fragments, like “It Must Have Been the Spirits<\/a>” (from The New Yorker<\/i>).<\/p>\n
You may recognize Cavafy’s “Ithaka<\/a>,” depending on how many weddings you’ve been to over the years; the more you attend, the better the odds you’ve heard it at least once. Here it is as read by Sean Connery, with an original soundtrack by Vangelis:<\/p>\n