Summary
The great Greek poet and former Alexandrian resident whose memorial in Alexandria closes essay 30 of Edward Said’s Reflections on Exile and Other Essays: a little quasi-monument existing more or less secretly on the second floor of the Greek Consulate, in a city that has no other recollection of one of the greatest poets of our century (Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, PDF p.329).
Details
- The British travel writer Gavin Young had advised Said to go to the consulate and ask to see the Cavafy room; it took Said half a day to find the consulate, across from the University of Alexandria Medical School in Chatby, and an hour’s wait on the staircase, with the Keeley and Sherrard translation of Cavafy’s poetry, before he was shown up (PDF p.329).
- In the bookshelves were about three hundred volumes of French, English and Latin works, many annotated by the poet, all handsomely bound; glass cases exhibited manuscripts, correspondence between Cavafy and other writers (including Marguerite Yourcenar), first editions and photographs; the memorial reposed unused, unvisited, unconsulted, mostly uncared for (PDF p.329).
- The chairs and tables were said to come from the Pension Amir, Cavafy’s last home in Alexandria, but other visitors were approached at the Pension Amir with offers from people who had “Cavafy furniture” to sell, so one cannot know whether the pieces belonged to the poet (PDF p.329).
- According to Edmund Keeley, Cavafy had constructed a “sensual city” out of Alexandria, of which nothing remains (PDF p.330).
- Essay 30 also names Cavafy among the writers on Alexandria — Durrell, Forster, Pierre Louys, Cavafy and Ungaretti — none of whose spirits are much in evidence in today’s port (PDF p.327), and Pastroudis as the coffee shop frequented half a century ago by Cavafy (PDF p.328).