One more poem

Posted by Bob on October 25, 2005

In Reply to: It is better to travel hopefully... posted by Bob on October 25, 2005

: : : : What does this Quote by Robert Louis Stevenson mean?
: : : : "It is better to travel hopefully than it is to arrive."

: : : I take it to mean that the pleasurable anticipation of something is better than the disappointing reality of its actually happening. A rather pessimistic view of life, perhaps.

: : : DFG

: : But a pleasant trip lasts longer than the moment of arrival.

: RLS would certainly agree that life is a journey, and the last stop is death. Arriving is no great goal; living and enjoying life is what we must do. Stop to smell the roses. Enjoy the scenery. Carpe diem.

I was thinking of Cavafy's poem "Ithaka" which I once memorized, but a few decades dimmed my memory. It's worht a read:

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and 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 and 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 the voyage is a long one.
may there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen 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 gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
without her you would not 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 will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

-- Constantine Cavafy