10th June
In June 1923 he was thinking about translation. He wrote to George Valassopoulou, who was translating the work of the Greek poet C.P. Cavafy, who Forster much admired. He expressed pleasure that reviewers were responding so positively to the translations, and urged him to translate some more. Forster identified a rare and special quality in Valassopoulou that, alongside 'literary ability’, made him a good translator: what he called 'mental honesty’. (Source: Selected Letters of E.M. Forster, ed. Mary Lago and P.N. Furbank (London: Collins, 1983-1985), letter of 18 June 1923)
