Ithaka
by C.P. Cavafy
Translated by
Edmund Keeley
As you set out
for Ithaka
hope your road
is a long one,
full of
adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians,
Cyclops,
angry
Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never
find things like that on your way
as long as you
keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a
rare excitement
stirs your
spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians,
Cyclops,
wild
Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you
bring them along inside your soul,
unless your
soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be
many summer mornings when,
with what
pleasure, what joy,
you enter
harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at
Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine
things,
mother of pearl
and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume
of every kind—
as many sensual
perfumes as you can;
and may you
visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go
on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there
is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry
the journey at all.
Better if it
lasts for years,
so you’re old
by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with
all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting
Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you
the marvelous journey.
Without her you
wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing
left to give you now.
And if you find
her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you
will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have
understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
Shenzhen, China
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