Fragments (Penguin Classics) (English and Greek Edition) [Mass Market Paperback]

Heraclitus (Author), Brooks Haxton (Translator), James Hillman (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: October 28, 2003

In the sixth century b.c.-twenty-five hundred years before Einstein-Heraclitus of Ephesus declared that energy is the essence of matter, that everything becomes energy in flux, in relativity. His great book, On Nature, the world's first coherent philosophical treatise and touchstone for Plato, Aristotle, and Marcus Aurelius, has long been lost to history-but its surviving fragments have for thousands of years tantalized our greatest thinkers, from Montaigne to Nietzsche, Heidegger to Jung. Now, acclaimed poet Brooks Haxton presents a powerful free-verse translation of all 130 surviving fragments of the teachings of Heraclitus, with the ancient Greek originals beautifully reproduced en face.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Heraclitus''s fragments come to us like sparks off an anvil. . . . a luminous translation." (Nicholas Christopher)

"Breathtaking." (Richard Howard)

"A pellucid and informed translation." (Rita Dove, The Washington Post)

Language Notes

Text: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Bilingual edition (October 28, 2003)
• Language: English, Greek
• ISBN-10: 0142437654
• ISBN-13: 978-0142437650
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #367,273 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #43 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Nonfiction > More Languages > Greek

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a translation, but renderings into 20th century New Age talk, September 6, 2005

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fragments (Penguin Classics) (English and Greek Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

Heraclitus' FRAGMENTS come here in the original with a facing-page translation by Brooks Haxton that tries to do to the pre-Socratic philosopher what no earlier translator has done, make him a New-Ageish wisdom poet in tune with our modern needs. It is a disastrous experiment, and I cannot recommend it either to students of Greek or readers interested in the pre-Socratics.

The problems here are legion. For one, Haxton doesn't use Diels' numbering scheme, favouring Bywater's dinosaur-era numbers, which means this work is out of touch with most collections of Heraclitus. The Greek typeface used is very idiosyncratic and not conformant to classical norms. But the translation itself is horrid.

A lot of what the reader is getting here simply isn't Heraclitus. Instead of providing a footnote with his opinion on what the fragment may mean in context, as reputable scholars would do, Haxton simply adds content to the translation. Unless he were to look at the translation notes in the back, the average reader would be unaware that much of what he was reading wasn't actual said by the philsopher, but is just one modern translator's opinion. Take, for example, Haxton's rendition of the fragment "Nyktipoloi, magoi, bakchoi, lenai, mustai", which is literally translated "Night-walkers, mages, bacchants, lenai, and the initiated", but which Haxton inexplicably expands to "Nightwalker [sic], magus, and their entourage, bacchants and mystics of the wine press, with stained faces, and damp wits". One that really takes the cake is 89: "Ex homine in tricennio potest avus haberi," which simply means "A man could be a grandfather in thirty years." Haxton somehow comes up with "Look: the baby born under the new moon under the old moon holds her grandchild in her arms".

This translation is a crime. If you are interested in Heraclitus' thought, try getting a reputable scholarly translation. Dennis Sweet's HERACLITUS: Translation and Analysis (University Press of America, 1995) is quite easily readable and entertaining. Stay far away from Haxton's kookish work.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars At Least it Has The Greek, May 11, 2006

By 

Ben Hoffman "Benquo" (Annapolis, MD, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fragments (Penguin Classics) (English and Greek Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you know Greek, and don't care about using it as a reference work, this is a good, inexensive edition. It contains the fragments in Greek.

On the pages opposite the Greek, though, is not a translation. Instead, it is an adaptation into English. This adaptation is occasionally inspired, often mediocre, and almost never what Heraclitus said.

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Shiny Happy Truisms, May 4, 2004

By 

Jeremy Kazan (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fragments (Penguin Classics) (English and Greek Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

While Heraclitus is no do doubt deserving of five stars, and Brooks Haxton does provides some lovely, even moving, translations here; there is something just a little too fast and loose about this edition for my comfort - as if the folks at Penguin figured they could cash in pitching ancient Greek thought to a New Age audience. I hate to say it, but this is a volume in desperate need of far more extensive footnotes and a far more rigorous introduction to provide a better picture of the world and context from these fragments and their author come from. Unfortunately, without these, Haxton/Penguin merely leave the reader with an amorphous list of happy truisms. James Hillman's softball introduction is of little use with its glib glossing of archetypes, postmodernism, and cross cultural comparisons of so-called "wisdom poetry" in what I can only take as a feel-good attempt to make Heraclitus into some sort of hip dude; you know, like Buddha, Lao-Tzu, Jesus and gang. And I have no doubt that he was, but this sort of self-congratulatory blather (e.g. "I like to think [Heraclitus] would have enjoyed this deconstruction") makes my teeth grind. This book is fine for those who want to rub their bellies and say "ohm," after every precious fragment, and Haxton's renderings really are nice, but it is still essentially useless for the student or serious reader. The use of the original Greek text on the facing pages appears perhaps only as a desperate attempt at some sort of legitimacy. On a shallow note, this book does feature one of the nicest, and most appropriate, covers to grace a Penguin Classic in a long time. At least their design department still appears to be top notch.