Poem of the week – Ithaka by C. P. Cavafy
Of all the modern Greek poets, Constantine Cavafy achieved the widest recognition and acclaim. His simple and concise yet intimate poems often reappraise classical events, myths, stories and characters, affording readers a fresh exegesis of dramatic histories and cautionary tales. Born in Egypt to Greek parents, Cavafy was steeped in European literature, enabling him to define his own unassuming style of composition.
This week’s poem is entitled Ithaka. The island of Ithaka features in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as the lost kingdom of Odysseus. Returning to his Ionian home becomes the governing principle of every action that the veteran-king takes after the tumult of the Trojan Wars. Cavafy uses the term to symbolise the end of an existential journey, as a cypher for the prevailing aim of a person’s exertions. We all search for the serenity that a feeling of belonging inspires, be it a place, a person or a particular circumstance and Cavafy uses the telling of Odysseus’ travails to express that ubiquitous desire. In Ithaka, the poet adumbrates the allure of that urge to return in us all before affirming that it is the journey and not the destination that is important in the end.
We hope you enjoy this week’s poem as much as we did.
Ithaka
Translated by Edmund Keeley
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.