Parmenides translation
by W. J. Aime, 2004-2006
1.
Horses, mares, carry me and send me as far as my heart desires.
Driving me on, they come to the famed road of the goddess
Who bears knowledgeable men through all towns and cities.
And there was I brought, for there did those sharp-sighted horses carry me,
Straining the chariot, virgins leading the way.
The axle blazing in its sockets whirred the song of distant pipes,
Spun by twin circles on either end, and then sun-bleached maidens,
hastening to send me into the light, left behind the house of Night,
their hands brushing aside the veils from their heads.
And there stood the gates of the paths of Night and Day
Framed by beam above and threshold of stone below.
These gates, high in the air, were closed by heavy doors
Whose interlocking bars the vengeful goddess Justice guards.
And the maidens coaxed her with sweet sounding speeches
And cunningly persuaded her to push aside the bars from the gates.
The opening of the doors created a gaping chasm
As pins of bronze turned in hinges on both sides,
Fastened down by bolts and rods. Through this opening, holding a straight course
The virgins led the chariot and the horses down the way.
And the goddess greeted me kindly, taking my right hand in hers,
And spoke the following words: O, Youth,
Accompanied by immortal charioteers, you come to my house,
With horses bearing you. Welcome; it is not ill fate that has sent you forth on this road
Far from the path of human beings, but it is right and just.
You must learn everything, both the unshaken heart of well-rounded truth,
As well as the opinions of mortals, even though therein lies no credible truth.
Nevertheless, this too you will come to understand: the things that seem to be,
It's right that they all seem to be interconnected with each other.
2.
Come then and I will tell you, and you hear it and take it into account,
these are the only two ways of inquiry to grasp with the mind,
one, the road of being, on which there is no “is not;”
it is the path of Trust, for it leads to revelation.
the other way is the road of non-being that says it's right for there to be an “is not,”
this road, I will point out to you, is untrustworthy, a dead end,
for neither can you think that which is not, for it cannot be grasped by the mind,
nor can you point it out.
3.
For to be and to think is the same thing.
4.
Look, no matter how far something is, to the mind it is securely present.
For you will not cut the hold of being from being,
As it is neither scattered everywhere throughout the cosmos
Nor something holding itself together.
5.
…it's all the same to me
wherever I start, for I come to the same point over and over again.
6.
The right thing is both to say and to think that which is.
For it is being, but what is not is nothing. This I urge you to see for yourself.
That is the first path of inquiry which I warn you from (the path of what is not),
Yet there is another, on which mortals know nothing
They wander in vain, like doppelgangers. Clueless, their twittering minds
Rush around their breasts; they are pushed around
Deaf and blind, completely stupefied, an uncritical mass,
To whom being and not to be name the same thing
And not the same thing, a path that turns everything back on itself.
7.
For do not ever dare that what is not is,
But keep your thought away from this road of inquiry,
And do not let habit, with its wide experience, force you down this road
To trudge with dull eye and an echoing ear and tongue.
Instead, use the power of speech to discern this much contested argument,
Launched from my arsenal.
8.
There is but one road left to account for, the road of “it is.”
And there are many signs for it: without beginning, indestructible,
For it is whole, motionless, and without end.
There is no past and there is no future, since it is now all the same,
One, continuous, for what birth could you seek for?
How and from what could it grow? Nor will I allow you to say or think
That it came from what is not, for it is neither sayable nor thinkable
That what is not is. And what necessity would start it
Earlier or later, beginning from nothing to grow?
Thus it is right that either it is completely or not.
Nor is there any reliable force in saying that from being
There comes to be some other thing besides being
For why would Justice loosen her fetters and let anything
Be generated or destroyed instead of holding fast?
On these things the decision comes down to this:
It is or it isn't.
(etc.)
