Desmond O'Grady was born in Limerick in 1935. Among the major figures of contemporary Irish poetry, he has taught in Paris, Rome, and the US and was, for a time, amanuensis to Ezra Pound. He is well-known as a translator of poetry and his publications include some sixteen collections.

The Dedalus Press series of budget pamphlets presents key works by major voices in world poetry. Constantine Peter Cavafy was born in Alexandria in Egypt in 1963 and died there in 1933, though he lived in English for a number of his early year, an experience which left him with a distinctly English accent and an infatuation with English sartorial style. During his lifetime, Cavafy's poems appeared mostly in small private editions circulated among friends, and generally his importance as a poet went unnoticed until well after his death. Today, however, he is recognised as a major figure in modern European poetry. Originally issued in 1998, the present volume was the first translation of his poetry to be made by an Irish poet. The translator, Desmond O'Grady, while travelling widely, taught for two years at Alexandria University. He has published more than a dozen collections of his own poems, most recently On My Way (Dedalus Press, 2006), while a survey of his work is available in The Road Taken 1956-1996 (1996) and of his volume of poetry in translation, Trawling Tradition 1954-1994 (1994), both from the University of Salzburg Press.

Ten Modern Arab Poets, first published in 1992, is a selection of the best of Irish poet Desmond O'Grady's translations from the Arabic. The poets choen include Abu Nuwas of Iraq, Ibrahim Naji of Egypt, Badawi al-Jabal of Syria and Al-Tijani Yusuf Bashir of Sudan. "Love is the dominant theme of all Arabic poetry from pre-Islamic times to the present," O'Grady writes in his introduction. "The Arab concept of poets and poetry is essentially romantic, and love in its various forms essentially its theme: love of woman, friend, country, Arab identity, God or his manifestations." O'Grady also provides a short biographical introduction to each poet.

Among the most admired of Desmond O'Grady's many poetry collections, The Wandering Celt was first published in 2001 and has been unavailable for some years. A work of enormous ambition and scholarship, the book sees O'Grady trace the history and movements of the Celts, from the creation of paper to their continuing influence on contemporary Europe, on the way touching on the Semites, Greeks, Romans and Arabs among others, and including an entire new translation of The Song of Songs. DESMOND O'GRADY was born in Limerick in 1935 and has travelled extensively, living in Paris and Rome, and in America where he took his M.A. and PhD. in Celtic Languages and Literatures and Comparative Studies at Harvard University. He has also taught at the American University in Cairo and at the University of Alexandria. His most recent books from Dedalus are On My Way (2005) and the reissue of his Ten Modern Arab Poets (2007), first published in 1992. Desmond O'Grady is a member of Aosdna,