In the Beirut library, just to the right as you go in, we buried wise Lysias, the grammarian. The spot is beautifully chosen. We put him near those things of his that he remembers maybe even there: comments, texts, grammars, variants, voluminous studies of Greek idioms. Also, this way, as we go to the books, we’ll see, we’ll honor his tomb.
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