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 Poseidonâdonât be afraid of them:
youâll 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 Poseidonâyou wonât encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
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Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors youâre 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 kindâ
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 youâre destined for.
But donât hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so youâre old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all youâve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldnât have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka wonât have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
youâll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
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