Letter by John Cavafy to C. P. Cavafy
GR-OF CA CA-SF02-S01-SS02-F20-SF001-0059 (434)
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Alexandria 27 January 1885
Dear Constantine, I have your charming Epistle, en- closing another of archaic idiom for Aristides and Addison’s Essay on the Imagination, for the gift of which I am as obli- ged to you as if it were worth a thousandfold its value.
The translations are at foot and I hope you will find them satisfactory. I have exhorted Peter to write to mother this mail and I think he will. We are all three of us well, and gladdened by the prospect of an early settlement of the long delayed payment of the Indemnities.
Wolseley, it is said, is well nigh at Khartoum and England has acceded to the desire of the other Powers for a joint guarantee of the proposed £9 million loan.
So with fair winds our family vessel should come into port and ride safely at anchor by the month of March. With this allegory and sans autre, and charging you to remember me affectionately to all I remain Yours John. Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side, as a sword? Φορείς (or φέρεις) την αγχίνοιαν (or αστειολογίαν) ως ξίφος πλησίον σου; Never any one did so, though very many have been beside their wit. Oυδέποτέ τις ούτως εποίησε, καίπερ πολλοί έξω φρενών εγένοντο. The joke of course is lost, viz: “wit by thy side” as against “beside their wit” (mad) and the Greek sounds little better than nonsense. ― J.C.C.
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GR-OF CA CA-SF02-S01-SS02-F20-SF001-0059 (434)
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Letter by John Cavafy to C. P. Cavafy
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27/1/1885
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Item
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27 x 21.5 cm
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Handwritten letter by John Cavafy to C. P. Cavafy on one side of a ruled sheet. Blank verso. Prospect for payment of indemnity by the Egyptian state by March. Interpolated phrases in Greek. (Alexandria)
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Mainly English
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Writing in ink. Watermark: R. J. Moss & Co., Alexandria.
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The transcription and editing of the letters of John Constantine Cavafy addressed to C. P. Cavafy was first carried out by Katerina Ghika; said transcriptions were subsequently uploaded to the official website of the Cavafy Archive.
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Comments on the translation of verses from Shakespeare’s Much ado about nothing.
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Cavafy, John Constantine. “Letter by John Cavafy to C. P. Cavafy”. Letter, 27.01.1885. GR-OF CA CA-SF02-S01-SS02-F20-SF001-0059 (434), Onassis Foundation C. P. Cavafy Fonds. From The Digital Collection of the Cavafy Archive, edited by Onassis Foundation, Athens, last modified 01.10.2025. https://doi.org/10.26256/CA-SF02-S01-SS02-F20-SF001-0059.
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DOI: 10.26256/ca-sf02-s01-ss02-f20-sf001-0059
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PERSONAL PAPERS
Correspondence of C. P. Cavafy
Family correspondence
Incoming correspondence of C. P. Cavafy
Incoming correspondence by John Cavafy