Talking to Dom tonight, discussing a you tube video he sent to me that showed Frodo riding the eagle into Mount Doom, thereby skipping over the long slogging walk through Mordor, I suddenly recalled this poem by Cavafy, one I fell in love with and copied out into my notebook once long ago.
Ithaka*
When you set out for Ithaka
Ask that your way be long,
Full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
Angry Poseidon—do not fear them;
Such as these you will never find
As long as your thought is lofty,
As long as a rare emotion
Touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
Angry Poseidon—you will not meet them
Unless you carry them in your soul,
Unless your soul raise them up before you.Ask that your way be long,
At many a summer dawn to enter—
With what gratitude, what joy!
Ports seen for the first time;
To stop at Phoenician trading centers,
And to buy good merchandise.
Mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
And sensuous perfumes of every kind.
Buy as many sensuous perfumes as you can,
Visit many Egyptian cities
To learn and learn from those who have knowledge.Always keep Ithaka fixed in your mind;
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But do not in the least hurry the journey.
Better that it last for years
So that when you reach the island you are old,
Rich with all that you have gained on the way,
Not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka has given you the splendid voyage.
Without her you would never have set out,
But she has nothing more to give you.
And if you find her poor,
Ithaka has not deceived you.
So wise have you become, of such experience,
That already you will have understood
What these Ithakas mean.– C. P. Cavafy (1868-1933)
Sorry, the skipping over the hard bits to drop the ring into the cracks misses something essential in the story. The journey is the point. If you teleport to your destination, you might have saved time. But it is precisely the time spent in journeying that makes the destination worthwhile.
And to add a quote from Eliot:
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot
*Note: This is not the translation I remember and I like it much less than the one I originally copied out.
Update:
Mom found the translation I remembered. Evidently I emailed it to her once and she saved it, God bless her.
Here it is. I’ll go ahead and post both versions. I’m not sure which actually is closer to the original Greek. I wish I knew a Greek scholar who knew something about Cavafy.
Ithaka
Setting out on the voyage to Ithaka
You must pray that the way be long,
Full of adventures and experiences.
The Laistrygonians, and the Kyklopes,
Angry Poseidon, -don’t be afraid of them;
You will never find such things on your way,
If only your thoughts be high, and a select
Emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians, the Kyklopes,
Poseidon raging- you will never meet them,
Unless you carry them in your own soul,
If your soul does not raise them up before you.You must pray that the way be long;
Many be the summer mornings
When with what pleasure, with what delight
You enter harbors never seen before;
At Phonecian trading stations you must stop
And must acquire good merchandise,
Mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
And sensuous perfumes of every kind;
As much as you can get of the sensuous perfumes;
You must go to many cities of Egypt,
To learn and still to learn from those who know.You must always have Ithaka in your mind,
Arrival there is your predestination.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better that it should last many years;
Be quite old when you anchor at the island,
Rich with all you have gained on the way,
Not expecting Ithaka to give you riches.
Ithaka has given you your lovely journey.
Without Ithaka you would not have set out.
Ithaka has no more to give you now.Poor though you find it, Ithaka has not cheated you
Wise as you have become, with all your experience,
You will have understood the meaning of an Ithaka.
That last line, especially. Somehow it feels so different to me to say “the meaning of an Ithaka” as opposed to “what these Ithakas mean”. And I also have always loved the flavor of the line “as much as you can get of the sensuous perfumes”. When I read this other translation those two lines stuck out like sore thumbs. Which I suppose points to one of the problems of reading anything, but poetry especially, in translation.
