These Ithakas

Rilke reminds me of Cavafy (that is Wiki, but this site looks better). "Ithaka" is a poem that has reappeared throughout my life on a number of occasions, mainly thanks to a former teacher who reminds me of it every half decade or so. It floats, as John Irving once said about sorrow (or actually "Sorrow", as it was a stuffed dog; or stuffed bear?). Anyway, it floats. So here is the ending of the never-ending journey to Ithaka:

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.

-C.P. Cavafy, from Ithaka