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
There would be more street signs like this one.
And more doors like this one.
You lose some, you win some.
Speaking of having one’s “druthers.”
Tom
Tom – If only . . . Although maybe, on the whole, it’s better as it is. 🙂
Having seen what tree roots can do to ancient structures — think of Angkor Was, say, or the ancient baths in Gondor, Ethiopia — I wonder if there are any instances of trees bringing down bridges. The sheer power of growth, in roots and trunks, is often underestimated.
Jim T
Jim T – Hmm. Google replies by offering me images of bridges being woven from old tree roots in the Atlas Obscura.
I can see a root- bridge photography trip coming up.
Jim T
Jim T – Umm, not sure. Jungles and I don’t get along. But it’s a great idea in the abstract.