- Constantine P. Cavafy, "Ithaca"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 centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.
Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don't in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn't anything else to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you'll have understood what these Ithakas mean.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Setting Out for Ithaka...
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9 comments:
EUREKA! I got it! This uplifting piece is telling us in an elegant, compassionate, roundabout way that "Ithika" represents whatever we may imagine "Heaven" or "Perfection" to be, so in vulgar-but-more-direct parlance "Ithika" functions as the carrot on the stick in front of all us poor donkeys blest with Vision and the courage to hope and yearn for better things.
"Ithika" is to Constantine P. Cavafy what "ZIon" is to the Jews or "Jerusalem" is to Jews and Christians alike.
My friend, Emily's view of life was not so sanguine:
Heaven is what I cannot reach!
The apple on the tree,
Provided it do hopelss hang,
That "Heaven" is, to me.
The color on the cruising cloud,
The interdicted ground
Behind the hill, the house behind ––
There Paradise is found!
~ E.D. (1830-1886)
Also:
Our lives are Swiss ––
So still –– so cool ––
Till some odd afternoon
The Alps nelect their curtains
And we see farther on.
Italy stands the other side!
While like a guard between
The solemn Alps ––
The Siren Alps ––
Forever intervene.
~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
And:
I asked no other thing ––
No other was denied.
I offered Being for it.
The Mighty Merchant smiled.
"Brazil?" he twirled a button
Without a glance my way
"But, madam, is there nothing else
That we can show today?"
~ E. Dickinson
And yet despite all this evidence of frustration and mounting cynicism, this singular reclusive genius found her "Ithika" in writing so eloquently of her doubt, frustration, pain and longing in a voice that haunts us with its unique aura of acceptance of the unacceptable. She may have been frustrated, but she never became bitter, cruel or abusive to anyone. Whatever she felt she expressed in the stillness of her sparsely furnished room where in private and n paper she bared her soul.
And then there this a story. We might want to rename it "Ithika Lost."
________ The Paradigm Shift _________
_
To start where everyone would love to go
Exerts a pressure on the one so blest,
Nurtured in privilege, sheltered from the low
And desperate, untoward struggling of the rest.
Foisted on us, guilt at our good luck
Let loose a sense of deep unworthiness
Yielding urges to immerse in muck
Our untried selves, and live on earth with less.
Unravelling the stitches parents sewed
Released a spring propelling downward thrust
Helping once safe havens to implode.
Our heritage betrayed then turned to dust.
Maniacally would our forebears laugh to see
Everything they won lost -- willfully.
~ FreeThinke
That was written for the 50th anniversary of my graduation from high school, but I didn't submit it for what-should-be obvious reasons. Like so many fortunate Americans of my socio-economic background generation I was BORN in "Ithika."
I was one of very few, however, who may have had the sense to realize it. It saddened me deeply to learn on reacquaintance that so many of our "brightest and best" wound up getting poisoned by the Ivy League education our parents had fought and struggled so hard to enable us to enjoy. What a hideous irony!
As we often lament in the blogosphere crypto-Marxists who have dominated the education racket now for many decades have the part of termites busily chewing away the foundation of liberty, optimism, faith and good will. What these machinations have wrought is despicable in the extreme.
Hitchcock's MacGuffin...
Feeling up for a little Zizek? (will likely be deleted soon)
ps - I'm not quite as pessimistic. The Left will never be able to turn a pile of sh*t into roses. Their's is a Potemkin ideology.
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