【注：明天去一个叫特洛伊的小城，之后会出趟远门。想起以前翻译过的这首卡瓦菲的诗，显然也是受荷马史诗的影响而作。记得第一次读到它，是杰奎琳·肯尼迪去世的追悼会上，她的爱人读给她的。】

原作：卡瓦菲；雪绒翻译

当你启程前往伊萨卡
希望你旅途长远，
充满冒险 充满发现。
莱斯特律戈涅斯人和独眼巨人，
还有愤怒的波塞冬海神
--你不用害怕它们：
只要你打起精神，
就不会在路上遭遇这些魔障梦魇，
只要你用高昂的兴致
搅动身体和灵魂，
莱斯特律戈涅斯人和独眼巨人，
还有愤怒的波塞冬海神
－－你不会遭遇它们
除非你把它们带进灵魂，
除非你的灵魂把它们高悬于脑门。

希望你的旅途长远，
但愿有许多的夏日清晨，
你初次走进港湾，
有欢愉和喜乐相伴；
但愿你逗留在腓尼基人的货摊，
买些精美物品，
珍珠母，珊瑚，琥珀和黑檀，
挑选各种好闻的香水－－
色香诱人，多多益善；
但愿你走访埃及的许多城市，
采集文人雅士的学识笑谈。

永远把伊萨卡牢记心间，
到达那里是你一直的心愿。
但不要匆匆忙忙地赶时间。
最好旅途能持续多年，
这样 到达那个岛屿你已经年长，
拥有一路上丰富的经验，
不会再期望伊萨卡使你富有完全。

伊萨卡会给你一段神奇的旅程。
没有她你只会裹足不前。
现在她再也没什么可以为你奉献。

如果你发现她一贫如洗，伊萨卡从未将你欺骗。
你将变得博学明智，充满阅历体验，
到那时 你就会理解伊萨卡人的深刻意愿。

原诗：

ITHAKA

By C.P. Cavafy (1863-1933);
English translation by Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and 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 and 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 the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen 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 gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
 
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
 
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not 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 will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.