El Kavafis de Riba

Abstract

Gabriel Ferrater considered that Carles Riba?s translations of the poems of Kavafis lacked the colloquial tone of the originals. This paper argues that Kavafis? language is composite rather than colloquial and that Riba used a low-level register when it was necessary. The work that Riba produced on Kavafis? poetry respects the sense of the original poems and is, at the same time, in agreement with the poetic interests which occupied him in his later years.