Ithaca

As you set out for Ithaca
hope that your journey will be a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laisfygonians and Cyclops,
you won't encounter them,
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope that your journey is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors you are 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 perfumes of every kind,
as many sensual perfumes as you can,
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and learn again from those who know.

Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better it lasts for years,
so that you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained along the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca will not have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithacas mean.

"Ithaca", 1910-1911
-C. P. Cavafy