The Beautiful Journey

In Constantine Cavafy’s poem “Ithaca,” the narrator approaches the end of the poem with these lines:

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Ithaca gave you the beautiful journey;

Without her you wouldn’t have set upon the road.

But now she has nothing left to give.

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Inspired by those lines, I sought to explore my own experience of being “upon the road” at various points in life. YummyColours’ Concept of the Year: Dear Future offered an ideal, lush, format for exploring that journey through a series of letters addressed ultimately to Time, beginning and ending with Dear Future.

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*Note:

Credit:

I cite Daniel Mendelsohn's translation of C.P. Cavafy's Complete Poems, 2009. I also cite the title of Alan Hollinghurst's novel, The Line of Beauty.

My interpretation of Dear Future

Dear Future began as your concept and became my reality. The Dear Future project asked me to consider the actuality of my life: not what I thought it would be, not what I wanted it to be, but the current reality of what my life has turned into, and not just my life, but my whole world. Cavafy’s poem, like every newborn, begins with the promise of a rich juicy life. As we trudge the beautiful road, the magic fades, the promises do not materialize, faith fades and fear takes hold; we forget. Multiply that individual fatigue by cities and countries, cultures and civilizations over time, and we harden, we weaken, we loosen and finally we break. The Dear Future Project turned into The Beautiful Journey, a poem, ending with a last letter to Future Time, and a question that leads the reader inexorably back to the present.

My interpretation of Dear Future