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 what pleasure, what joy,
You enter harbors 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 marvelous 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.
