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Umber R. Pande thanx for this wonderful poet
Cavafy was instrumental in the revival and recognition of Greek poetry both at home and abroad. His poems are, typically, concise but intimate evocations of real or literary figures and milieux that have played roles in Greek culture. Uncertainty about the future, sensual pleasures, the moral character and psychology of individuals, homosexuality, and a fatalistic existential nostalgia are some of the defining themes.
Cavafy was born in 1863 in Alexandria, Egypt, to Greek parents, and was baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church. His father's name was Πέτρος Ἰωάννης, Petros Ioannēs —hence the Petrou patronymic (GEN) in his name— and his mother's Charicleia (Greek: Χαρίκλεια; née Γεωργάκη Φωτιάδη, Georgakē Photiadē). His father was a prosperous importer-exporter who had lived in England in earlier years and acquired British nationality. After his father died in 1870, Cavafy and his family settled for a while in Liverpool in England. In 1876, his family faced financial problems due to the Long Depression of 1873, so, by 1877, they had to move back to Alexandria.
In 1882, disturbances in Alexandria caused the family to move again, though temporarily, to Constantinople. This was the year when a revolt broke out in Alexandria against the Anglo-French control of Egypt, thus precipitating the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. Alexandria was bombarded by a British fleet, and the family apartment at Ramleh was burned.
In 1885, Cavafy returned to Alexandria, where he lived for the rest of his life. His first work was as a journalist; then he took a position with the British-run Egyptian Ministry of Public Works for thirty years. (Egypt was a British protectorate until 1926.) He published his poetry from 1891 to 1904 in the form of broadsheets, and only for his close friends. Any acclaim he was to receive came mainly from within the Greek community of Alexandria. Eventually, in 1903, he was introduced to mainland-Greek literary circles through a favourable review by Xenopoulos. He received little recognition because his style differed markedly from the then-mainstream Greek poetry. It was only twenty years later, after the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), that a new generation of almost nihilist poets (e.g. Karyotakis) would find inspiration in Cavafy's work.
समाज सेवा में नए नए आये युवा और तेज बच्चे जो बहुत तेजी से राजनैतिक, आर्थिक और सामाजिक ढाँचे को बदलना चाहते है, काम का जोश और जज्बा तो बहुत परन्तु सवालों के जवाब नहीं है. आज बड़े कौतुक से आकर बैठे और पूछने लगे तो मेरे पास भी कोई ठोस जवाब नहीं और ना ही विकल्प या रास्ते.......
बहुत लाडले बच्चे है और बहुत सारी जिज्ञासाएं है पाठ्यक्रम और वास्तविक जीवन के बीच समंदर जैसे गैप और पढाई और हकीकत का अलग होना ...इनकी समाज और बदलाव को लेकर, जब ये आदिवासियों की बात करते है, विस्थापन की बात करते है तो मेरे पास भी जवाब नहीं है , घोंघल में नर्मदा नदी में डूब रहे लोगों की बात करते है और आलीराजपुर के आदिवासियों के बारे में मेरे पास कोई जवाब नहीं है, झाबुआ में पैक्स के बड़े कार्यक्रम को लेकर खर्च हुए दो तीन करोड़ की राशि को लेकर इनके सवाल थे, क्या किसी के पास जवाब है?
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