First trips to Greece.
The Beautiful Letters| N° d'inventaire | 31620 |
| Format | 11.5 x 19 |
| Détails | 282 p., paperback |
| Publication | Paris, 2025 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782251457147 |
To look at Athens with the eyes of a poet, such is the privilege offered by the First Journey to Greece .
When he set sail in June 1901, Constantin Cavafy, a Greek from the diaspora born in Egypt (Alexandria), had never seen the country from which his mother tongue originated: in his logbook, he meticulously recorded each stage of his journey through his spiritual and cultural homeland. For the contemporary reader, this account is a guide as moving as it is unusual, an initiatory stroll through a bygone world as much as an intimate encounter with the conscience of a man who was also one of the greatest Greek writers of the 20th century . Like a silent traveling companion, we follow him from the "purple hills" to the torrid shallows of Piraeus, without forgetting the clear and "intensely Greek" waters of the Aegean, to the lights of the port of Patras and the island of Corfu.
Presented and translated for the first time in its entirety into French by Lucien d'Azay, subtly illustrated by the photographs of Nikos Aliagas, the text is followed by Notes on Poetry and Ethics and then by a few newspaper articles on Hellenic questions that are still relevant today (such as that of the Elgin Marbles), the whole testifying to the singular ambivalence of the work and personality of Constantin Cavafy.
To look at Athens with the eyes of a poet, such is the privilege offered by the First Journey to Greece .
When he set sail in June 1901, Constantin Cavafy, a Greek from the diaspora born in Egypt (Alexandria), had never seen the country from which his mother tongue originated: in his logbook, he meticulously recorded each stage of his journey through his spiritual and cultural homeland. For the contemporary reader, this account is a guide as moving as it is unusual, an initiatory stroll through a bygone world as much as an intimate encounter with the conscience of a man who was also one of the greatest Greek writers of the 20th century . Like a silent traveling companion, we follow him from the "purple hills" to the torrid shallows of Piraeus, without forgetting the clear and "intensely Greek" waters of the Aegean, to the lights of the port of Patras and the island of Corfu.
Presented and translated for the first time in its entirety into French by Lucien d'Azay, subtly illustrated by the photographs of Nikos Aliagas, the text is followed by Notes on Poetry and Ethics and then by a few newspaper articles on Hellenic questions that are still relevant today (such as that of the Elgin Marbles), the whole testifying to the singular ambivalence of the work and personality of Constantin Cavafy.