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
Isabel
I love the philosophical quote.
Tom
Tom – 🙂 I guess it’s possible that it was added by the person installing the cement, with reference to their career aspirations.
Reflections are fascinating. You’ve done some before — skyscrapers reflected in car fenders, bridges on water, etc. — but it’s the sheer simplicity of these images in the sunglasses that catches me.
Obviously, one can’t go through life looking only at reflections, but life would be much less rich if one NEVER looked at reflections.
Jim T
Jim T – 🙂 Thanks – I like these, also. I recently saw some lovely reflections of palm trees in office windows, but needed my good camera and its zoom to get them. By the time I was close enough to capture them with my phone, the angle was wrong.
Abe Lincoln, in his merrier moments said, “You’re only as happy as you decide to be.”
Barbara – LOL. He doesn’t seem like the cheeriest guy, does he?
Perhaps it is his voice — which, apparently, sounded like a 13-year-old girl. THAT changes the Gettysburg Address, doesn’t it?
Still, a great man, merry or not.