{"id":3644,"date":"2011-08-25T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T18:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcurocks.wordpress.com\/?p=187"},"modified":"2011-08-25T00:00:33","modified_gmt":"2011-08-24T18:30:33","slug":"ithaka-ap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/25\/ithaka-ap\/","title":{"rendered":"Ithaka, AP"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nWhen \u00a0I was to speak at the Orientation for new students a few weeks ago, \u00a0I was looking for something that would best describe what I wanted to convey… \u00a0I feel that all of us here at the University, are on voyages of our own. UoH<\/strong> is as much a port of call as it is a destination for many of us, and Constantine Cavafy\u2019s poem \u2018Ithaka<\/em>\u2019, struck me as the most appropriate.
\nThe poem talks about a journey. It talks about striving for the destination, but also making the most of the journey \u2013 something all of us at the University should do.
\nAnd as it happens, I came across the poem only quite recently, so I decided to share it for those not familiar with it. There are many translations available, and this is one by Keeley and Sherrard that you can find on the \u00a0Cavafy Archive website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ithaka<\/span><\/p>\n

As you set out for Ithaka
\nhope the voyage is a long one,
\nfull of adventure, full of discovery.
\nLaistrygonians and Cyclops,
\nangry Poseidon-don’t be afraid of them:
\nyou’ll never find things like that on your way
\nas long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
\nas long as a rare excitement
\nstirs your spirit and your body.
\nLaistrygonians and Cyclops,
\nwild Poseidon-you won’t encounter them
\nunless you bring them along inside your soul,
\nunless your soul sets them up in front of you.
\nHope the voyage is a long one.
\nMay there be many a summer morning when,
\nwith what pleasure, what joy,
\nyou come into harbors seen for the first time;
\nmay you stop at Phoenician trading stations
\nto buy fine things,
\nmother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
\nsensual perfume of every kind-
\nas many sensual perfumes as you can;
\nand may you visit many Egyptian cities
\nto gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
\nKeep Ithaka always in your mind.
\nArriving there is what you are destined for.
\nBut do not hurry the journey at all.
\nBetter if it lasts for years,
\nso you are old by the time you reach the island,
\nwealthy with all you have gained on the way,
\nnot expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
\nIthaka gave you the marvelous journey.
\nWithout her you would not have set out.
\nShe has nothing left to give you now.
\nAnd if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
\nWise as you will have become, so full of experience,
\nyou will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
\nTranslated by Edmund Keeley\/Philip Sherrard<\/strong>\u00a0(C.P. Cavafy,\u00a0Collected Poems.<\/em>\u00a0Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)<\/strong>
\n\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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