Ceramic vase: Penelope and Telemachus await
Odysseus' return to Ithaka
Detail of an Attic Red-figure skyphos, 440 BC
Ithaka*
by Konstantinos
Kavafis (Cavafy)
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.
-
* It's about the journey, not the
destination. (Elenor)
*Constantine
P. Cavafy*, also known as Konstantin or Konstantinos
Petrou Kavafis, or Kavaphes (Greek Κωνσταντίνος
Π. Καβάφης) (1863 –
1933) was a renowned modern Greek poet who lived in Alexandria - Egypt - and worked as a journalist and civil
servant. In his poetry he examined critically some aspects of Christianity, patriotism,
and homosexuality,though he was not always comfortable with his role as a nonconformist.
He published 154 poems; dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch
form. His most important poetry was written after his fortieth
birthday.
Cavafy drew his
themes from personal experience, along with a deep and wide
knowledge of history, especially of the Hellenistic
era. Many of his poems are pseudo-historical, or seemingly
historical, or accurately, but quirkily, historical.
Source: Wikipedia
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