I enclose my favourite poem
by Constantine Peter Cavafy.
ITHACA
As you set out for Ithaca, 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 body.
Laistrygonians, Clyclops, wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them 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 harbours 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 enter many Egyptian cities to learn and go on
learning from their scholars
Keep Ithaca always in your mind
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
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 Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca 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,
Ithaa won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become,
so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then
what those Ithacas mean
