ITHAKA

ITHAKA

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is long,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find such things on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as wistful emotions
stir your spirit and body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless they dwell your soul,
unless your soul raises them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure and joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician
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 gather stores of wisdom from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your thoughts.
Your arrival is your destiny.
But don't ever hurry the journey.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
enriched with what you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would have not sailed away.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
This way, wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.


about poem:
In the poem Ithaka, Kavafis emphasizes the immense value of individual experience. According to him, angry Poseidon, the savages and the Cyclops do not really exist or, if they do, they only exist in the mind of the individual. Ithaka itself is simply an excuse for a long journey. It is all about the journey. There is no hurry and you cannot get lost for there is no destination. Rather you arrive where you are meant to be. The journey itself is immensely important.