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