“...what should be cherished even more
is the sensual pleasure that is achieved morbidly, corruptingly—
it rarely finds the body able to feel what it requires—
that morbidly, corruptingly creates
an erotic intensity that a healthy disposition cannot generate....”
Extract from a letter
written by young Imenos (from a patrician family)
notorious in Syracuse for his debauchery
in the debauched times of Michael the Third.
Reprinted from C.P. CAVAFY: Collected Poems Revised Edition, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savidis. Translation copyright © 1975, 1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Princeton University Press. For reuse of these translations, please contact Princeton University Press.
The Canon