Derek Mahon: Heraclitus on Rivers

Length / Form A short poem in two stanzas of unequal length.

Allusion to Classical figure Heraclitus

Relationship to Classical text No explicit reference to the Platonic source is made but the first stanza echoes elements of Sophoclean elenchus in setting out Mahon’s argument.

Close translation of words/phrases/excerpts ‘Nobody steps into the same river twice’ is an approximate translation of a quotation attributed to Heraclitus in Plato’s Cratylus (402, a: δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης). This particular Platonic dialogue explores the way meaning is conferred through language and whether one form of language can be more ‘true’ than another. Mahon carries the enquiry to the extreme conclusion whereby poetry, language and the very ‘idea of language’ cease to exist. Also ‘executed/ A monument more lasting than bronze’ is a translation of the famous Horatian boast Exegi monumentum aere perennius (Odes 3.30).

Classical/post-Classical intertexts MacNeice’s poem ‘Variation on Heraclitus’ explores the fluid nature of the physical world and the meanings and authority which are consequently unable to gain a strong foothold. Wallace Stevens’ ‘This Solitude of Cataracts’ responds to the same classical source and, interestingly, introduces the impossible character of the ‘bronze man’, which is perhaps echoed in Mahon’s reference to Horace. Pound also refers to the Heraclitan dictum ‘All things are flowing’ in Hugh Selwyn Mauberley.