Ithaca
When you start on your way to Ithaca,
pray that your journey will be long,
full of adventures, full of knowledge.
Do not fear, The Lestrygonians,
the Cyclopes, or the angry Poseidon,
you will never run into things like that,
if your thoughts are kept high, if a clear
excitement moves your body and your spirit.
You will never meet the Lestrygonians
or the Cyclops or the angry Poseidon
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raises them before you.
Pray that the way is long.
Let the summer mornings be many
when you will enter with such pleasure, such joy,
harbours you have never seen before;
may you stop at Phoenician markets,
to buy their fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and pleasurable perfumes of every kind,
as many as you can get.
And may you visit a lot of Egyptian cities,
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Always maintain Ithaca in your mind.
Arrival there is your destiny.
But don’t hurry the trip at all.
Let it last for many years
and when you reach the island, and you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
do not expect any further riches from Ithaca.
Ithaca gave you the beautiful voyage.
Without her, you would never have started your journey.
She has nothing else to give you.
And if you find Ithaca poor, Ithaca has not tricked you.
You have become such a wise person, with much experience.
You already understand what Ithaca means.
