The Professorship in Modern Greek at the University of Michigan is named after CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY (1863-1933), the best-known modern poet writing in Greek. The choice of name is inspired by the poet's eminence, his diachronic interest in Hellenism, and his diasporic fate. It also recognizes that members of the Greek diaspora in the United States established the Chair through their tireless efforts and generous contributions.

Cavafy, too, was a Greek of the diaspora. Born to parents from Constantinople, raised for a time in Liverpool and London, Cavafy wrote his finest poetry in Alexandria, his birthplace and the city identified closely with his name.

Cavafy possessed a singular voice that resonates even in translation. British contemporary E. M. Forster appreciated Cavafy's original approach. He described Cavafy as standing "at a slight angle to the universe." He introduced the poet's work to T. S. Eliot, T. E. Lawrence, Arnold Toynbee, and others who in turn inspired new readers to discover Cavafy's work. Yet Europe and America did not come to know Cavafy until the 1950s. Once his work was translated, Cavafy posthumously emerged as an enormously influential poet.

You can learn more about Cavafy by visiting online the exhibit, "Cavafy's World," which opened at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and Hatcher Graduate Library Special Collections in February 2002:

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/kelsey/galleries/Exhibits/cavafy/cavafy.html