Our Cavafy, a selection of new translations of Constantine P. Cavafy—widely considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century—by Constantine Contogenis '98 was released on July 10, 2026 by Finishing Line Press.
"Contogenis gives us a Cavafy both plainer and richer than that of previous translators; a Cavafy whose subtle ironies temper his brazenness, who whispers his bold truths with a faint twinkle in his eye," said Boris Dralyuk, poet, translator, and Editor in Chief of Nimrod International Journal. "Reading these versions, I feel, more than ever before, that I am alone in a quiet room with a daringly honest observer of life."
The 45 new translations from Cavafy's Greek attempt to bring the "unresolved ironies" and unanswered questions, which have too often been ignored or resolved in prior translations, into English. Contogenis's selection highlights poetry that has had lasting impacts on contemporary English-language poetry—which radiates from heartbreaking experiences of homosexual desire to universal musings on history, sex, and life—crafting each translation to stand on its own as an English-language poem, side-by-side with the original Greek.
Harold Augenbraum, cofounder of the Yale Translation Initiative, noted that the "superb translations" illuminate the "patterns of Cavafy's essential solitude, as if he were looking through an only slightly distorting glass and believing it a mirror."
Contogenis, a poet and translator, was a finalist for the 2024 Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize. His poetry chapbook, Between One Thing and Its Other, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2026. His first collection, Ikaros (Word Press, 2004), won the First Prize Writer's Voice Open Voice Poetry Award, and he co-translated Songs of the Kisaeng: Courtesan Poetry of Last Korean Dynasty (BOA Editions, 1997). His work has been included in Joining Music with Reason: 34 Poets, British and American: Oxford 2004-2009, chosen by Christopher Ricks (Waywiser, 2011), and Pomegranate Seeds: Anthology of Greek-American Poetry, ed. Dean Kostos (Somerset Hall, 2008), in addition to numerous journals and the Poetry Society of America's Poetry in Motion collaboration with the MTA.
Our Cavafy is available now from Finishing Line Press.
