Ithica: Two Ways
La canzone Itaca di Lucio Dalla (1970)
Capitano, che hai negli occhi
Il tuo nobile destino
Pensi mai al marinaio
A cui manca pane e vino?
Capitano, che hai trovato
Principesse in ogni porto
Pensi mai al rematore
Che sua moglie crede morto?
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
La mia casa ce l'ho solo là
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
Ed a casa io voglio tornare
Dal mare, dal mare, dal mare
Capitano, le tue colpe
Pago anch'io coi giorni miei
Mentre il mio più gran peccato
Fa sorridere gli dei
E se muori, è un re che muore
La tua casa avrà un erede
Quando io non torno a casa
Entran dentro fame e sete
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
La mia casa ce l'ho solo là
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
Ed a casa io voglio tornare
Dal mare, dal mare, dal mare
Capitano, che risolvi
Con l'astuzia ogni avventura
Ti ricordi di un soldato
Che ogni volta ha più paura?
Ma anche la paura in fondo
Mi dà sempre un gusto strano
Se ci fosse ancora mondo
Sono pronto, dove andiamo?
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
La mia casa ce l'ho solo là
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
Ed a casa io voglio tornare
Dal mare, dal mare, dal mare
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
La mia casa ce l'ho solo là
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
Ed a casa io voglio tornare
"Ithaka" by C.P. Cavafy
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
CP. Cavafy
The Cavafy poem--a famous, oft-recited work--has been a favorite of mine for a few years already. As I age and amass more experiences, its meaning becomes clearer. It's a poem I've grown to love so much that I want to memorize it and be able to recite it at will, like those cultural preservationists in Fahrenheit 451 who memorize pieces of literature in their entirety.
The Lucio Dalla song is from his album Storie di casa mia (1971), which I've realized is likely my favorite Dalla album. The album evokes images of sunburned summer in Italy, quiet towns in the countryside, and the omnipresent Mediterranean Sea, which all align with my own memories of Italy. I am terribly nostalgic, I know. I am prematurely nostalgic about things I love before I even experience their loss. So yes, I appreciate Dalla's most nostalgic album very much.