Letter by John Cavafy to C. P. Cavafy
[Via] Khedevieh Steamer
[Alexandria] 30th December 1884My 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be extremely arduous, for Shakespeare is not easily handled in another tongue: and there is in his writings much that is obsolete in ethics as well as in ideas.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 untilI 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
44 x 27.5 cm
CONTEXT AREA
CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA
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)
CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA
Mainly English
Writing in ink. Watermark: R. J. Moss & Co., Alexandria. Physical item wear: oxidations.
NOTES AREA
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.
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.