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Ithaca

Setting out on the voyage to Ithaca
You must pray that the way be long....
Many be the summer mornings
When with what pleasure, with what delight
You enter harbours never seen before.

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 Ithaca to give you riches.
Ithaca has given you your lovely journey -
Without Ithaca you would not have set out.

Ithaca has no more to give you now.
Poor though you find it, Ithaca has not cheated you.
Wise as you have become, with all your experience,
You will have understood the meaning of an Ithaca.

Cavafy, 1911
This poem is like the song of a Robin; bitter sweet.

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