Ithaka-C.P.Cavathy

Today  we received a beautiful letter through the post. Since the advent of emails it is now known as snail mail but ironically is faster than ever, sometimes letters can take a mere two days from Italy to England compared to the up- to- a month in days of yore. Enclosed in the letter was a copy of "Ithaka" as a wish list . I 'd like to share it because I can think of lots of you who would like it.

Ithaka- C.P.Cavathy

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 your pleasure, what joy,

You enter harbours 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 marvellous 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.

(Translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)