Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

This is worthwhile. It seems so right that a prominent classicist should have translated Cavafy, whose poems range from paeans to same-sex pleasure--rivaling those of Catullus--to exquisitely rich poems set in a range of ancient Greek and Roman historical contexts. Now, ninety percent of this would be lost on me were it not for Daniel Mendelsohn's highly detailed notes. So, if you have an interest in Greek and Roman history, know some of the ancient writers like Aeschylus, Thucydides, Xenophon, etc. -- I imagine Gibbon would be helpful too though I've yet to read him -- then look into these spectacular translations rendered in an English that in its flatness reminds me of Wallace Stevens. (Strangely enough.)

Most interesting is Cavafy's use of dates to place the action of a poem at a specific historical juncture. Here's an example:

Theater of Sidon (400 A.D.)

A respectable citizen's son—     above all else, a beauteous
youth who belongs to the theater,     agreeable in so many ways:
I now and then compose,     in the language of the Greeks,
exceedingly daring verses,     which I circulate
very secretly, of course—     gods! they mustn't be seen
by those who prate about morals,     those who wear gray clothes�
verses about a pleasure     that is select, that moves
toward a barren love     of which the world disapproves.

As Mendelsohn explains in a note:

"The date of 400 A.D. is suggestive, marking as it does a historical moment not long after the triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire, and not long before the advent of the barbarians; for this reason, the date Cavafy chooses for this poem evokes the short clarion swan song of pagan Classical culture." Also "Those who wear gray clothes is a reference to Christians."