<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space; font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Ithaca </span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">As you set out for Ithaka</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">hope your road is a long one,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">full of adventure, full of discovery.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Laistrygonians, Cyclops,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">you’ll never find things like that on your way</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">as long as a rare excitement</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">stirs your spirit and your body.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Laistrygonians, Cyclops,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">unless you bring them along inside your soul,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">unless your soul sets them up in front of you.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Hope your road is a long one.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">May there be many summer mornings when,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">with what pleasure, what joy,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">may you stop at Phoenician trading stations</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">to buy fine things,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">sensual perfume of every kind—</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">as many sensual perfumes as you can;</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">and may you visit many Egyptian cities</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">to learn and go on learning from their scholars.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep Ithaka always in your mind.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Arriving there is what you’re destined for.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">But don’t hurry the journey at all.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Better if it lasts for years,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">so you’re old by the time you reach the island,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Without her you wouldn't have set out.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">She has nothing left to give you now.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- C. P. Cavafy</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">(Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)</span></div></body></html>