Some­thing spe­cial and affect­ing read to us at TEDx­Sum­mit in Eng­lish by Jason Hsu of TEDx­Taipei and in the native Greek by Kate­rina Bil­iouri of TEDx­Thes­sa­loniki.

There are real, and endur­ing mes­sages in it for those of us who wish to cre­ate change in the world. Bet­ter yet, it’s no less about rela­tion­ships, friend­ship and love.

I hope you enjoy Cafavy’s Ithaca.

Ithaca

When you set out on your jour­ney to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adven­ture, full of knowl­edge.
The Lestry­go­ni­ans and the Cyclops,
the angry Posei­don — do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emo­tion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestry­go­ni­ans and the Cyclops,
the fierce Posei­don you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the sum­mer morn­ings are many, when,
with such plea­sure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoeni­cian mar­kets,
and pur­chase fine mer­chan­dise,
mother-​​of-​​pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sen­sual per­fumes of all kinds,
as many sen­sual per­fumes as you can;
visit many Egypt­ian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ulti­mate goal.
But do not hurry the voy­age at all.
It is bet­ter to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expect­ing that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beau­ti­ful voy­age.
With­out her you would have never set out on the road.
She has noth­ing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much expe­ri­ence,
you must already have under­stood what Itha­cas mean.

Con­stan­tine P. Cavafy (1911) (Greek orig­i­nal)