The original Fragments of Heraclitus are powerful and puzzling. No one is sure of the original or meaning. No one is sure of the original order, context, and complete set. Hence, any presentation of the fragments, must make choices. Any choice will present some, not others, in a particular order, and thus will interpret Heraclitus.
Since interpretation is inevitable, each editor will interpret, and each reader will interpret; this interpretive effort is usually reserved and cautious.
I thought it would be interesting exercise to go whole hog. In this interpretation I have freely interpreted the fragments we have in order to construct a (purely hypothetical) coherent unity. The result is quite obviously not a reconstruction of "Heraclitus," but a kind of "found poem" of my own using Heraclitian fragments as raw material. The result is, we might say, inspired by Heraclitus. Though it stands a chance to falsify the spirit of the author, my hope is that such an exercise stands an equal chance of resonating with the spirit of the author.
My strategy was simple. First, I used this translation and replaced "reason" with the Greek "Logos" to bring out the unity of a central concept. Second, I tried to organize the fragments thematically. I imposed a four-line form on them, organizing lines into sets of four. Third, if a sentence was too long I paraphrased it down. Fourth, and most brashly, I supplied by invention new lines if a sentence was lacking (the invented are noted by italics).
The result is an original poem. It "flows" in a way certainly unlike Heraclitus' original, but offers a look at what a coherent version of Heraclitus' fragments might have looked like.
Dionysius Buhler, 2016
Although the Law of Logos is common, the majority live as though they alone were wise. It is wise for those who hear, not me, but the universal Logos, to confess that all things are one.
Although the Law of Logos is common, the majority live as though they alone were wise. Alhough all things happen according to this Logos, men act as though they had never heard of it.
The God whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks plainly nor conceals, but indicates by signs. There is only one supreme Wisdom: It wills and wills not to be called by the name of Zeus.
For humans do not understand, but the divine does. The thoughtless man understands the voice of the Deity as little as the child understands the man. Yet it pertains to all men to know themselves.
Hesiod was a "teacher" of the masses but knew not day and night. Homer, Archilochus, Xenophanes? They should be exiled and flogged. Pythagoras? He made a wisdom of his own--much learning and bad art. Much learning does not teach one to have understanding,
Things men consider mysteries, they celebrate sacrilegiously. Night-roamers, Magians, bacchanals, revelers in wine, the initiated, They pray to images and prattle much but know nothing of gods or heroes. Hades and Dionysus, for whom they rave in bacchic frenzy, are the same.
When defiled, they purify themselves with blood, As if one who falls in the mud could clean himself with mud. It is better to conceal ignorance than to expose it, but it is hard to conceal in relaxation and over wine.
Let us not draw conclusions rashly about the greatest things; Dogs, also, bark at what they do not know. He who wishes to be good shall often err, But presumption must be quenched even more than a fire.
To me, one is ten thousand if he be the best. In Priene there lived Bias, son of Teutamus, whose word was worth more than that of others. One who knows that wisdom is apart from all is worth a thousand.