Constantine Cavafis was born in Alexandria on April 29, 1863 and died on his birthday of laryngeal cancer in 1933. Cavafis was the youngest of nine children and in 1872, two years later his Upon his father's death, he and his family moved to England where they remained for the next six years before returning to Egypt. In 1882 they moved to Constantinople during the Egyptian rebellion against the English and returned to Alexandria in 1885 where he lived for the rest of his life. He enjoyed the unique life experience offered by the Greek community, far from the influence exerted by the literary circles of the powerful Athenian personality Palamas, a leading figure of the New Athenian School and the generation of 1880. Through arduous studies he managed to acquire a profound knowledge of history and of Greek literature (especially of the Hellenistic period) and European literature. Although he belongs chronologically to the generation of 1880, his work features several modernist elements and is therefore considered the precursor of modern Greek poetry. He is one of the Greek poets best known abroad and most translated into foreign languages. His work has been a source of inspiration for many foreign poets and writers. One of his chief admirers and friends was EM Forster, with whom the poet shared a bond of grateful solidarity, probably attributed to the fact that they were both homosexuals. Cavafis began publishing poetry in 1891 but had been writing since 1884. His poetry can be divided into three phases; The period 1884-1894 is the first phase of romanticism, 1894-1903 is the phase of symbolism and 1903-1933 that of poetic realism. Kavafy distinguished his poems into three categories; historical, didactic/philosophical and sensual. Kavafis's historical poems refer to his... middle of the paper... and he could have used να αγοράσεις 'buy' instead, but he doesn't. Mavrogordatos' translation of this phrase is a tetrameter: "and one must buy good merchandise." Dalven's translation reads "and purchase fine goods." In this translation Keeley and Sherrard do not attempt to reproduce any of the verse's homonymous rhymes, completely ignoring even the rhythmic and orchestral effects that Cavafy's language offers here. Sticking with Keeley and Sherrard, in the same poem where the poet talks about the moment when Odysseus will finally dock 'αράξει' which is a stronger verb than 'arrive' chosen by Keeley and Sherrard. They did not choose to translate precisely, and the word they deliberately chose is no better than the one chosen by the poet himself. In Mavrogordato and Dalven, the translation says 'yet', which is what Kavafis meant.