Ithaca


When you start on the road to Ithaca
wish that the way be long
full of adventures, full of experience.
Fear not the Laestrygones and the Cyclops
the angry Poseidon
you will never find such as these in your way
if your thoughts stay clear, if a choice
emotion affects your body and spirit.
The Laestrygones and the Cyclops,
the wild Poseidon you will never meet,
if you do not carry them in your soul,
if your soul does not set them up in front you.

Wish that the way be long.
Let there be many summer mornings
when with such a pleasure, such a joy
you will enter harbors never before seen;
you will stop at Phoenician stalls
and will acquire lovely goods,
mother-of-pearl and coralls, amber and ebony
and hedonic perfumes of every kind,
hedonic perfumes as plenty as you can;
go to many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from the studious.

Always keep in mind Ithaca.
Arriving there is your goal.
But do not hurry the trip at all.
It is better that it lasts many years;
and when finally an old man, you berth on the island,
rich with what you have gained on the road,
do not expect that Ithaca will give you riches.

Ithaca gave you this lovely voyage.
Without her you would not have started on the road.
She has nothing else to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not fooled you.
Wise that you have become , with such experience,
you must by now know what Ithacas mean.

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translations cannot easily carry the flow, particularly of Cavafy, who is a very doric poet.