Letter by John Cavafy to C. P. Cavafy

GR-OF CA CA-SF02-S01-SS02-F20-SF001-0056 (431)

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[Via] Khedevieh Steamer [Alexandria] 30th December 1884
My dear Constantine,       I was duly favoured with your spirited and    charming letter of the 10th: much consolation have
   I found in the reperusal thereof this evening before    beginning this brief reply. The Greek translations    will ere this have reached you but I am sadly    afraid that I have acquitted myself but poorly, for    I think you will find the style somewhat too archaic    for a modern Greek translation. I am delighted at the    nature of your undertaking and shall be still more    so when I receive your valuable Manuscript which will    meet with my most careful attention and solicitude.    Your self-imposed task I can conceive must be ex-    tremely arduous, for Shakespeare is not easily handled    in another tongue: and there is in his writings    much that is obsolete in ethics as well as in ideas.    The two words “Recheat” and “Cinque-pace” have    for some days past been my constant preoccupation    and suceeded in baffling my enterprising researches.    The meaning of the first I have at last disinterred    and I have the authority of Sheridan Knowles in    stating that it signifies:      “A horn, or a tune to summon the hounds back”
   “Cinque-pace” however will not yet consent to yield    up the ghost and I must ask your patience until
    I track it home. Προετοιμασμένος is the fittest     equivalent I can think of for “prepared.”     Aristides saw Huri some time ago but the latter     did not mention having seen you at Constantinopoli. ―     I have no news to give you, in fact you are better     informed there of what goes on in Alexandria than     I in my office-exclusiveness can ever hope to be.     Many kisses to mother, Alexander and Paul, and     with best wishes for better times during 1885 than     we have had in its precursor
          Believe me, my dear Brother.
               Yours devotedly
                         Johannisberg

Constantine F. Cavafy Esquire
     Constantinople.

DIGITAL OBJECT DESCRIPTION

IDENTITY AREA

REFERENCE CODE:

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GR-OF CA CA-SF02-S01-SS02-F20-SF001-0056 (431)

TITLE:

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Letter by John Cavafy to C. P. Cavafy

DATE(S):

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30/12/1884

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Item

EXTENT AND MEDIUM:

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44 x 27.5 cm

FORMER REFERENCE CODE:

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F53_Φ1-32

CONTEXT AREA

NAME OF CREATOR(S):

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Cavafy, John

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

SCOPE AND CONTENT:

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Handwritten letter by John Cavafy to C. P. Cavafy on the first and third pages of a double sheet letterhead of R. J. Moss & Co., Alexandria. The remaining pages are blank. The sender refers to translations he has made upon the request of his brother, which probably correlate to translations of Shakespeare’s works into Greek by C. P. Cavafy. (Alexandria)

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CC BY-SA 4.0 Cavafy Archive Onassis Foundation

LANGUAGE AND SCRIPT NOTES:

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Mainly English

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

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Writing in ink. Watermark: R. J. Moss & Co., Alexandria. Physical item wear: oxidations.

NOTES AREA

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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.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

Literary annotation, providing additional information on the digital object.

John Cavafy and C. P. Cavafy discuss on the translation of a work by Shakespeare into Greek. The title is not mentioned in the letter but it is Much ado about nothing, as may be deduced by a subsequent letter (5 January 1885). It seems that C. P. Cavafy had undertaken to translate the work and was asking for his brother’s assistance.