Day 357 of Colourisation Project – April 29
Challenge: to publish daily a colourised photo that has some significance around the day of publication.
Widely considered one of the foremost modern Greek poets of the 20th century, Constantine P. Cavafy was born on this day, April 29, 1863 and died on this day, April 29, 1933 –his 70th birthday.
Photographer unknown ~ C.P. Cavafy 1901 ~ Loredana Crupi
Never having published any of his work during his lifetime, Cavafy remained virtually unrecognized in Greece until late in his career. However since his death eighty-two years ago, Cavafy has come to be recognized as one of the greatest poets of modern times.
Although regarded as the first modernist Greek poet, he drew inspiration from the ancient world, particularly the Hellinistic Era of Alexandria, around and after the days of Alexander the Great. His poetry falls under three categories; historical, philosophical and love poems.
Rejecting the traditional Christian values and heterosexual ethics, his love poems, elegiac and candidly sensual, were entirely devoted to adult love between men. Well advanced by the standards of his time, they were also lessons in universal love transcending sexual preference and rooted in a common shared humanity.
Since his death from cancer of the larynx in 1933, Cavafy was largely held responsible for the revival and recognition of Greek poetry outside of Greece. His reputation continues to grow and his legacy lives on today through his body of work, which has been translated into many languages. His former home has been converted into a Museum honoring his life and works. The Greek Ministry of Education, Religion, Culture and Sport proclaimed 2013 “Year of Constantine Cavafy.”
His last motion just before dying reportedly, was to draw a circle on a sheet of blank paper, and then to place a period in the middle of it.
____________________________________________________________
Random Phoughts 