Eng: KR
Fr. 1
The mares that carry me as far as my heart ever aspires sped me
on, when they had brought and set me on the far-famed road of the
god, which bears the man who knows over all cities. On that road was
I borne, for that way the wise horses bore me, straining at the
chariot, and maidens led the way. And the axle in the naves gave out
the whistle of a pipe, blazing, for it was pressed hard on either
side by the two well-turned wheels as the daughters of the Sin made
haste to escort med, having left the halls of Night for the light,
and having thrust the veils from their heads with their hands.
There are the gates of the paths of Night and Day, and a lintel
and a stone threshold enclose them. They themselves, hight in the
air, are blocked with great doors, and avenging Justice holds the
alternate bolts. Her the maidens beguiled with gentle words and
cunningly persuaded to push back swiftly from the gates the bolted
bar. And the gates created a yewning gap in the door frame when they
flew open, swinging in turn in their sockets the bronze-bound pivots
made fast with dowels and rivets. Straight through them, on the
broad way, did the maidens keep the horses and the chariot.
And the goddess greeted me kindly, and took my right hand in
hers, and addressed me with these words: "Young man, you who come to
my hopuse in the company of immortal charioteers with the mares
which bear yoiu, greetings. No ill fate has sent you to travel this
road -- far indeed does it lie from the steps of men -- but right
and justice. It is proper that you should learn all things, both the
unshaken heart of well-rounded trught, and the opinions of mortals,
in which there is not true reliance. But nonetheless you shall learn
these things too, how what is believed would have to be assuredly,
pervading all things throughout."
Fr 2
Come now, and I will tell you (and you must carry
my account away with you when you have heard it) the only ways of
enquiry that are to be thought of. the one, that [it] is and that it
is impossible for [it] not to be, it the path of Persuasion (for she
attends upon Truth); the other, that [it] is not and that it is
needful that [it] not be, that I declare to you is an altogether
indiscernible track: for you could not know what is not -- that
cannot be done -- nor indicate it.
Fr. 3
Fr. 4
But look at things which though far off, are
securely present to the mind; for you will not cut off for yourself
what is from holding to what is, neither scattering everywhere in
every way in order [i.e. cosmic order] nor drawing together.
Fr.5
It is a common point from which I start; for there
again and again I shall return.
Fr.6
What is there to be said and thought must needs be:
for it is there for being, but nothing is not. I bid you ponder
that, for this is the first way of enquiry from which I hold you
back, but then from that on which mortals wander knowing nothing,
two-headed; for helplessness guides the wandering thought in their
breasts, and they are carried along, deaf and blind at once, dazed,
undiscriminating hordes, who believe that to be and not to be are
the same and not the same; and the path taken by them all is
backward-turning.
Fr. 7
For never shall this be forcibly maintained, that things that are
not are, but you must hold back your thought from this way of
enquiry, nor let habit, born of much experience, force you down this
way, by making you use an aimless eye or an ear and a tongue full of
meaningless sound: judge by reason the strife-encompassed refutation
spoken by me.
Fr. 8
There still remains just one account of a way,
that it is. On this way there are very many signs, that being
uncreated and imperishable it is, whole and of a single kind and
unshaken and perfect. It never was nor will be, since it is now, all
together, one, continuous. For what birth will you seek for it? How
and whence did it grow? I shall not allow you to say nor to think
from not being: for it is not to be said nor thought that it is not;
and what need would have drive it later rather than earlier,
beginning from the nothing, to grow? Thus it must either be
completely or not at all. Nor will the force of conviction allow
anything besides it to come to be ever from not being. Therefore
Justice has never loosed her fetters to allow it to come to be or to
perish, but holds it fast. And the decision ab out these things lies
in this: it is or it is not. But it has in fact been decided, as is
necessary, to leave the one way unthought and nameless (for it is no
true way), but that the other is and is genuine. And how could what
is be in the future? How could it come to be? For if it came into
being, it is not: nor is it if it is ever going to be in the
future. Thus coming to be is extinguished and perishing unheard
of. Nor is it divided, since it all exists alike; nor is it more
here and less there, which would prevent it from holding together,
but it is all full of being. So it is all continuous: for what is
draws near to what is. But changeless within the limits of great
bonds it exists without beginning or ceasing, since coming to be and
perishing have wandered very far away, and true conviction has trust
them off. Remaining the same and in the same place it lies on its
own and thus fixed it will remain. For strong Necessity holds it
within the bonds of a limit, which keeps it in on every
side. Therefore it is right that what is should not be imperfect;
for it is not deficient -- if it were it would be deficient in
everything. The same thing is there to be thought and is why there
is thought. For you will not find thinking without what is, in all
that has been said [or: "in which thinking is expressed"]. For there
neither is nor will be anything else besides what is, since Fate
fettered it to be whole and changeless. Therefore it has been named
all the names which mortals have laid down believing they to be true
-- coming to be and perishing, being and not being, changing place
and altering in bright colour. But since there is a furthest limit,
it is perfected, like the bulk of a ball well rounded on every side,
equally balanced in every direction from the centre. For it needs
must not be somewhat more er somewhat less here or there. For
neither is it non-existent, which would stop it from reaching its
like,nor is it existent in such a way that there would be more being
here, less there, since it is all inviolate: for being equal to
itself on every side, it lies uniformly within its limits.
For they made up their minds to name two forms, of which They needs
must not name [so much as] one -- that is where they have gone astray
-- and distinguished them as opposite in appearance and assigned to
them signs different one from the other -- to one the aitherial flame
of fire, gentle and very light, in every direction identical with
itself, but not with the other; and that other too is in itself just
the opposite, dark night, dense in appearance and heavy. The whole
ordering of these I tell you as it seems fitting, for so no thought of
mortal men shall ever outstrip you.
Fr.9
But because all things have been named light and
night, and things corresponding to their powers have been assigned to
this and that, all is full of light and of obscure night at once, bot
equal, since neither has any share of nothing.
Fr. 10
And you shall know the nature of aither and
all the signs [i.e. constellations] in it and the destructive works of
the pure torch of the shining sun, and whence they came into being; and
you shall hear of the wandering works of the round-eyed moon and of
her nature; and you shall know too of the surrounding heaven, whence
it grew and how Necessity guiding it fettered it to hold the limits
of the stars.
Fr. 11
Fr. 12
The narrower rings are filled with unmixed fire,
those next to them with night, but into them a share of flame is
injected; and in the midst of them is the goddess who steers all
things; for she governs the hateful birth and mingling of all things,
sending female to mix with male, and again conversely male with
female.
Fr. 13
Fr. 14
A night-shining, foreign light, wandering around the earth.
Fr. 16
As is at any moment the mixture of the wandering
limbs, so mind is present to men; for that which thinks is the same
thing, namely the substance of their limbs, in each and all men; for
what preponderates is thought.
Fr. 17
On the right boys, on the left girls ...
Fr. 18
Fr. 19
Thus according to belief these things came to be
and now are, and having matured will come to an end after this in the
future; and for them men have laid down a name to distinguish each
one.
