1 First publication for Cavafy originally meant publication in a periodical. Later, it came to mean either this or private printing as a broadsheet. (Although Cavafy also printed certain poems in bifolios, this does not apply to the poems under discussion.) From around 1916, private printing began to take over as Cavafy’s preferred method of first publication, and by 1919, this pattern was firmly established, as can be seen from the tables compiled by Savidis, G. P. and published in his book Ol καβαφικές έκδόσεις (Athens 1991) 285–323 Google Scholar. I am also indebted to Anthony Hirst for making available to me his unpublished work on Cavafy’s printing practices.

2 For evidence of composition and revisions, I shall be referring to Cavafy’s so-called ‘chronological catalogues’, which provide a record of composition for the period 1891–1925, and can be found in Savidis, G. P., Μικρά καβαφικά, II (Athens 1987) 49–85 Google Scholar. For a detailed discussion of these catalogues, see Ekdawi, S. and Hirst, A., ‘Left out, crossed out and pasted over: the editorial implications of Cavafy’s own evaluations of his uncollected and unpublished poems’, Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand) 5-7 (1997-9) 79–130 Google Scholar. For evidence of composition after 1925, I shall be referring to the much less detailed running lists used by Cavafy in place of the chronological catalogues in his last years, published in Lavagnini, R. (ed.), К. IJ. Καβάφης, Ατελή ποιήματα 1918-1932 (Athens 1994) 323-8Google Scholar. In the chronological catalogues, revisions are sometimes noted as ‘ξαναγράψιμο’ and changes of title are often marked by deletion of the original title where it was first entered. For details of revisions, I rely on published photographs of manuscripts and printings that have appeared in various sources, although these piecemeal publications, which are not cross-referenced, may not represent a full record of the extant evidence.

3 For a full account of these collections, see Savidis, Ol καβαφικές έκδόσεις. For a detailed discussion of the basis for Cavafy’s thematic arrangements, see Hirst, A., ‘Philosophical, historical and sensual: an examination of Cavafy’s thematic collections’, BMGS 19 (1995) 33-93Google Scholar.

4 Savidis, G. P., ‘Παραλλαγές στούς Τάφους tot) Καβάψη’, Μικρά Καβαφικά, II, 457-66Google Scholar. In this study of Cavafy’s revisions to the five poems with the word ‘τάφος’ in their titles, Savidis comments that there are two groups of five poems in Cavafy’s oeuvre with a repeated word in their titles (‘τάφος’ and ‘μέρες’), noting that Cavafy ‘avoided similar repetitions for other thematically-related groups of poems’ such as the seven poems about Julian the Apostate (460). He implies that Cavafy fully intended that there should be only two groups of poems with repeated title words and related themes, but this would be difficult to prove, since it relies on an argument from absence.

5 Haas, D., Le Problème religieux dans l’oeuvre de Cavafy. Les Années de formation (1882-1905) (Paris 1996) 127 Google Scholar. In fact, Cavafy left his ‘jewels’ (both his personal jewellery and his papers) to Alexandros Sengopoulos, who may have been the illegitimate son of his brother Alexander. All quotations from the canon are taken from Savidis, G. P. (ed.), К. П. Καβάφη, Ποιήματα (Athens 1963)Google Scholar.

6 I note, however, that Cavafy’s early English language poems only make sense if read with reference to his life and family.

7 Savidis, Ol καβαφικές έκόόσεις, 137.

8 Other Greek writers, including Achilleus Paraschos, had used ‘Πθίήματα’ as collection titles in the 1880s, but Cavafy is more likely to have wished to align himself with his more illustrious English contemporaries.

9 It does not reflect the order of composition, as far as this can be established. On the other hand, dates of final revision are not known, and dates of printing (first publication) do not necessarily follow the order of composition.

10 The evidence for this can be found in Cavafy’s chronological catalogue of 1891-1925 ( Savidis, , Μικρά καβαφικά , II, 62 Google Scholar). For ease of reference, this catalogue is known as ‘F16’. ‘Μέρες τοΰ 1896’ is the penultimate entry before this catalogue breaks off; it is one of only three poems listed for 1925. (The poems that precede and follow it are: ‘Στο πληκτικο χωριο’ and ‘Απολλώνιος ò Τυανευς έν Ρόδω’, respectively.)

11 Savidis, G. P. (ed.), Κ.Π. Καβάφη, Τά ποιήματα, II (Athens 1991) 138 Google Scholar.

12 Savidis, , Ol καβαφικές έκδόσεις , 67 and 330 Google Scholar. ‘Μέρες χοϋ 1896’ is the seventy-fourth of eighty-eight poems in Cavafy’s penultimate chronological collection and forty-sixth of sixty-nine in the final one.

13 See, for example, Savidis, Ol καβαφικές έκοόσεις, 62-5, where Cavafy himself explains this in letters and draft letters (to Napoleon Lapathiotis and Tellos Agras).

14 Sic: Ποιήματα (1916-1918) was finalized and circulated before Ποιήματα (1905-1915) (Savidis, Οί καβαφικές έκοόαεις, 67). This is probably connected with the overlap between Ποιήματα 1910 and Ποιήματα (1905–1915). For a full discussion of how Cavafy’s thematic arrangements are related to each other, see A. Hirst, ‘Philosophical, historical and sensual’. For a brief summary, see Hirst, A., ‘Note on the Greek text’, in Cavafy, C.P., The Collected Poems , translated by Sachperoglou, E., Greek text edited by Hirst, A., with an introduction by Mackridge, P. (Oxford 2007) xxxiv–xxxix Google Scholar.

15 A photograph of a fair copy of the manuscript, with no revisions or deletions, can be seen in Savidi, L. (ed.), Λεύκωμα Καβάφη (Athens 1983) 175 Google Scholar. A photograph of a printing with a single revision (to be discussed below) can be seen in Κρητικά Φύλλα 6 (Αφιέρωμα στον Κ.Π. Καβάφη) (1978) 132.

16 The evidence for this is the undeleted original title in the chronological catalogue ( Savidis, , Μικρά Καβαφικά, II, 62 Google Scholar), which is identical to the title in both the manuscript and the printing.

17 S. Ekdawi, ‘Days of 1895, ‘6 and ‘7: The parallel prisons of Cavafy, C.P. and Wilde, Oscar’, The Modern Greek Studies Yearbook 9 (1993) 297–305 Google Scholar. I do not suggest that all the details of this poem fit Wilde. There are also some telling points of comparison with Paul Cavafy, who apparently feared prison in 1908: see below, under the discussion of ‘Μέρες roti 1908’.

18 Malanos, T., Όποιητής К. П. Καβάφης (Athens 1957) 100 Google Scholar.

19 For a full discussion of the thematic catalogues, see Ekdawi, S. and Hirst, A., ‘Hidden things: Cavafy’s thematic catalogues’, Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand) 4 (1996) 1–34 Google Scholar. The significance of the ‘Φυλακαί’ heading is that Cavafy later chose poems from it to open his first two printed collections (Ποιήματα 1904 and Ποιήματα 1910): ‘xsΦωνες’ and ‘Ή πόλις’. These two poems originally date from 1894, and “H πόλις’, originally ‘Πάλι οτην ‘ίδια ϋΐόλ,η’, may well allude to a trip to Egypt taken by Lord Alfred Douglas in that year (at his family’s insistence). The remaining ‘Prisons’ poems, all written during and shortly after Wilde’s imprisonment, are: the unpublished ‘Συγκίνησις’ (March 1896); ‘Τείχη’ (September 1896); ‘Tπαράθυρα’ (August 1897), a non-extant poem; ‘Σάν πεθαμένο’ (August 1897), which I believe may have been an early version of ‘‘Επιθυμίες’; and Ή ψυχες τΰχν γερόντων’ (1898).

20 Haas, Problème, 235.

21 For date and text, see Savidis, (ed.), К. П. Καβάψη, Ανέκδοτα ποιήματα (Athens 1968) 151 Google Scholar.

22 Savidi, Λεύκωμα, 175.

23 Κριτικά Φύλλα 6, 132.

24 15.12.1905: Savidis, , Μικμά καβαφικά , II, 111 Google Scholar. All quotations follow the particular polytonic (or, in one instance, monotonie) system used by the author or editor (in this case Savidis).

25 For a discussion of Cavafy’s self-censorship, see Ekdawi, S., ‘The Passions File: Cavafy’s private collection?’ The Modem Greek Studies Yearbook 16/17 (2000/2001) 159-75Google Scholar.

26 Savidis, , Τά ποιήματα , II, 139 Google Scholar.

27 Ibid.

28 Savidi, Αεύκωμα, 255. The photograph is captioned, ‘Tó ποίημα [...] οπως τό έτοίμασε ό Καβάψης γιά τό τυπογραφειο, στίς 28 Όκτωβρίου 1927’.

29 In the final collection, it was number 49. Thus in both collections it is relatively close to ‘Μέρες τοΰ 1896’.

30 Haas, D. and Pieris, M., Βφλιογραφικός όόηγός στά 154 ποιήματα τον Καβάφη (Athens 1984) 171 Google Scholar.

31 Savidis, , Τά ποιήματα, II, 139-40Google Scholar.

32 To this day, there is no published catalogue of the Cavafy Archive. Numbers assigned to manuscripts refer to the film on which they were photographed (cf. Lavagnini, Ατελή, 52). The manuscript of this poem is F81; the first note is F78, and the second note is F87. The notes are apparently undated, but it is clear from their contents that they both date from after 1927, or possibly late 1927 (although this seems less likely).

33 Cf., for example, Cavafy’s comments, published anonymously in 1927 in Αλεξανδρινη Τέχνη, on Louis Roussel’s translations of his work, quoted in N. Deliyannaki (‘Ζεύγη σύχωνοιόν Καβάφη’, Μολυβοοκονδνλοπελεκητής 2 (1990) 51: ‘Ίδέα δέν ‘έχει άπό τήν Καβαφική οιιχσυργική [...] Μετρα καί ξαναμετρα τόν άνύπαρχτο! καί πελαγώνει. Μιλα ό εύλογημένος γιά hemistiches!’

34 Cavafy wrote extensively about his poetry, focusing typically on the meaning of particular words (this is especially, but not exclusively, true of the notes he made on his brother John’s translations (see, for example, Papoutsakis, G., Καβάφη Πεζά (Athens 1963) 237-49Google Scholar), historical authenticity and what he calls ‘emotional verity’ (see for example the notes on the possible recurrence of barbarians ( Savidis, , Μικρά καβαφικά, II, 131 Google Scholar) and the ‘verity’ of Ή Σατραπεία’ (ibid., 129) and cf. Sengopoulos: ‘[о Καβάψης] πάντα ζχει ΰπ’ οψι του την πιθανότητα’ (in Pieris, Είσαγωγή, 49)).

35 Sengopoulos in Pieris, , Είσαγωγή στήν ποιησή τον Καβάφη (Herakleion 1994) 52 Google Scholar.

36 Ibid.

37 Quoted in Haas, D., ‘Σχόλια τοθ Καβάφη σέ ποιήματά του’, Κύκλος Καβάφη (Athens 1983), 83–109 Google Scholar. Haas has associated ‘Μέρες τοΰ 1901’ with Cavafy’s confessional notes of 1897-1909, concerning the negative effects of self-abuse on the body (Haas, Problème, 367). This seems odd, as the young man in the poem has presumably not obtained his ‘πεΐραν Εροπος’ on his own.

38 First published by Papoutsakis in Καβάφη Πεξά, 259-300.

39 Reprinted in Pieris, Είσαγα>γή, 23-34.

40 Savidis, , Μικρά καβαψικά II, 107-8Google Scholar.

41 This is my transcription of the photograph of the autograph manuscript in Savidi, Λεύκωμα, 325. A photograph of the heavily corrected ms final version of ‘Μέρες χου 1903’ can be found in ibid., 278

42 As can be seen from the chronological catalogue F5, which covers 1891-1912 ( Savidis, , Μικρά καβαφικά, II, 81 Google Scholar) and F16 (ibid., 57).

43 This is one of several clear pieces of evidence that Cavafy considered date of first printing to be definitive for his chronological and thematic collections; his records of composition dates were kept for another purpose (and here, perhaps, one sees the civil servant as well as the historian/archivist at work, preserving accurate records).

44 Unlike other Greek poets of his day (including Palamas and Sikelianos), Cavafy never openly or obliquely dedicated his poems to anyone in print. For other instances of initials on mss, see Savidi, Λεύκωμα, 276, 277, 279.

45 Compare, for example, the opening line of the unpublished poem, ‘Μιση ώρα’: ‘Μήτε σε άπέκτησα, μήτε θα σε άποκτήσω’. On the other hand, kissing a body is a very different matter from ‘acquiring’ a face and eyes or, indeed, the whole man.

46 As evidenced in the two chronological composition catalogues. It is undeleted in the earlier catalogue, F5, as ‘1 βράδυ μου’ (Μικρά καβαφικά, II, 81) but deleted in the later catalogue, F16, where it appears as “Ένα Βράδυ μου’ (Μικρά καβαφικά II, 57).

47 Savidis, , Τά ποιήματα, I, 149 Google Scholar. The inclusion of this poem in Ποιήματα (1905-1915) is one of the pieces of evidence indicating that Cavafy treats cover date and not issue date of periodicals as the date of first publication; thus ‘ΜΛ Νύχτα’ is regarded by him as a poem of 1915, not 1916. The photograph of this manuscript in Savidi, Λεύκωμα, 324 has visible corrections and deletions. The title is ‘Mia νύχτα μου’, with ‘μου’ deleted; the last line has been changed from ‘μόνος, μες orò έρημητικο [μου] σπίτι, μέθυσα ξανά’ (with ‘μου’ added above an omission mark) to ‘μες σιο μονηρες σπίτι μσυ μεθώ ξανά’. As this manuscript is signed and not crossed out, it seems a reasonable assumption that this is the printer-ready copy.

48 See also Lavagnini, R., ‘‘Επιθυμίες’ di К. Kavafis’, Studi Neoellenici (Palermo 1975) 44–63 Google Scholar. The relationship between these poems is discussed on pp. 59-60.

49 Descriptions of all these notebooks can be found in Savidis, Ol καβαφικές έκδόσεις, 91-102. The ‘Malanos Notebook’ was given by Malanos to Seferis, who later gave it to Savidis.

50 This does not apply to Ποιήματα (1905-1915), which opens with Ή πόλις’ and ‘Ή σατραπεία’. Savidis comments: ‘Σέ τέσσερις θεματικές συλλογές ταυ, “H πόλις’ καί “Η σατραπεία’ άποτελοϋν μονίμως τά δύο θυρόψυλλα πού είσάγουν οτήν Καβαφική ποίηοη’ ( Savidis, , Tá ποιήματα, I, 126 Google Scholar). Savidis notes the device of an introductory diptych, but he does not make a parallel case for ‘Φωνές’ and ‘Έπιυμίες’, possibly because they belong to the ambiguous no man’s land of ‘Pre-1911 non-rejected poems’, which Savidis and later editors have struggled to assign a place in the canon, as they overlap in six cases with Ποιήματα (1905-1915). Savidis’ solution is to include the poems that do not overlap with Ποιήματα (1905-1915) in a separate section, labelled by him ‘1896-1904’ (a date range never used by Cavafy) at the end of his 1963 edition, and in an appendix in his 1991 edition (where he revises the dates to ‘1897-1904’). This has, perhaps, obscured Cavafy’s deliberate choice of two related poems to open his thematic collections. In Ποιήματα (1916-1918), we find Άπ’ τες έννώ’ and ‘Νόησις’ in the opening position. The first of these can be related to ‘Φωνές’ through the phrase, ‘πένθη της οίκογένειας’ and the second to ‘‘Επιθυμίες’, through the phrase, ‘ó ήδονικός μου βίος’, which also relates this poem to the ‘περασμένη ήδονή’ in Άπ’ τες έννιά’. Thus ‘Απ’ τες έννιά’ and ‘Νόησις’ can be read as a parallel opening to ‘Φωνές’ and ‘‘Επιθυμίες’. Hirst prefers to include the titles of the six poems in their original positions in Ποιήματα 1910, which forms the first part of the Oxford World Classics edition, C. P. Cavafy, The Collected Poems.

51 For a discussion of how Cavafy rewrote his (published) poems, see Mackridge, P., ‘Variations on a theme: Cavafy rewrites his own poems’, Κάμπος 6 (1988) 35–50 Google Scholar.

52 See Savidis, Οί καβαφικές έκδόσεις, 155, n. 23.

53 Papoutsakìs, Πεζά, 267-8. Tsokopoulos (1871-1923) was a journalist and playwright; he was the editor of Έστία in 1920-2.

54 Savidis, , Μικρά καβαφικά, II, 61 Google Scholar.

55 Savidis, Oí καβαφικές έκδόσεις, 323.

56 If my suggestion that Cavafy partially manipulated the ordering by selective first printing is accepted.

57 See Daskalopoulos, D. and Stasinopoulou, M., ‘O βίος καί τό έ’ργο τσθ Κ.Π. Καβάφη (Athens 2001) 165 Google Scholar

58 Savidis may be tacitly acknowledging Cavafy’s selection of ‘Μέρες τοΰ 1908’ as closing poem, when he moves Έίς τοι περίχωρα της Αντιοχείας’ to an appendix in his 1991 edition.

59 Quoted by Savidis in Та ποιήματα, I, 166, in his notes to ‘Μέρες τοΰ 1903’.

60 Hellenic Foundation for Culture, Centre for Neo-Hellenic Studies and Cavafy Archive, Cavafy, C. P. Exhibition Catalogue (Athens 2008)Google Scholar. I am indebted to Manuel Savidis for bringing this catalogue to my attention and supplying me with a copy.

61 Unfortunately, the only authority for this is Robert Liddell, who is not always a reliable source. Liddell claims to have seen unpublished letters from Paul, written in France, begging his brothers John and Constantine for money, before he obtained his new position. Liddell, R., Cavafy. A Biography, reprinted with a new introduction by Peter Mackridge (London 2000) 109-10Google Scholar.

62 Savidis, , Μικρά καβαφικά , II, 107 Google Scholar.

63 Tsirkas, , ‘K. П. Καβάφης: σχεδίασμα χρονογραφίας τοϋ βίου του’, Έπιθεώρηση Τέχνης 18 (Αφιέρωμα К. П. Καβάφη) (1963) 690 Google Scholar.

64 Pieris, Michaiis, ‘К. П. Καβάψη [Σημειώματα γιά τά τελευταΐα χρόνια καί τήν άρρώστια της Χαρίκλει,ας Καβάφη] (1899)’, Μολυβδοκονδολοταλεκητής 3 (1991) 171–210 Google Scholar. See, for example, p. 184.

65 See Tsirkas, ibid., 696. For the text of the lecture, see Pieris, Είσαγωγή, 35-16.

66 Savidis, , Μικρά καβαφικά , II, 109 Google Scholar.

67 First published in Savidi, Λκύκωμα, 43-9.

68 Savidi, Λεύκωμα, 45.

69 Liddell, Cavafy, 110. Paul also mentions fear of prison.

70 Lavagnini, Ατελή, 329.

71 A. Hirst, personal communication, 2009. A full account of this information will be published by Hirst in due course.

72 Hirst, personal communication, 2009.

73 Although Seferis also used this title in poems, it is clearly the diaries that are relevant to how the term has been assimilated into Greek.

74 I would like to thank Rowena Fowler for drawing my attention to this. Dowson’s words, used as an epigraph for my article, are very poignant in the context of Cavafy’s ‘Μέρες’ poems.