Let Ithaka be always in your thoughts.
To get there is your goal and destiny.
But do not hasten to your journey’s end:
it’s better if it lasts for many years
so that you'll reach the island when you’re old,
wealthy with all you’ve gained along the way,
not hoping Ithaka will make you rich.
Your marvellous journey is Ithaka’s gift.
Without her you would not have started out.
But she has nothing more to give you now.
And if you find she's poor, you’ve not been fooled.
So wise have you become, so much you’ve learned,
that you will know what Ithakas must be.
Source: Seen in passing on X-Twitter. Holler if you want the whole thing.
Author/Translator: Armand D'Angour, Professor of Classics, Oxford. Cello lover. Larkin about. Turning life into Latin verse, one hexameter at a time. Podcast “It’s All Greek (& Latin!) to Me”.
Posted: Feb 06
Nice images Isabel. Come back in a few weeks after the eggs yet-to-be laid have hatched and it is neat to see the chicks sticking their long sharp beaks down the parent’s throat to obtain food.
Jim R – Stay tuned! I have one or two almost clear photos of the feeding. It triggers my gag reflex . . .
The only good thing that can be said about parent birds’ way of feeding their young is that it’s a lot more caring than the reptiles who simply abandon their offspring in the sand, on the shore, in the rushes, wherever. Bards are amazing creatures — their ability to operate in three dimensions, the sense of navigation, their ability to make tools, etc. — but their ways of feeding nestlings are not something I would recommend as an evolutionary example to follow.
Jim T
Jim T – Well, it seems to work for them, and *that’s* a good thing. And, like reading Nietzsche, I’m glad it’s not me.