Coffee With Pierre

I

(1) The mares which bear me, as far as my spirit could reach escorted me, they went, guiding me onto the much sung way of the divinity, which bears the man who knows through all cities.On it I bore myself. For on it the well discerning mares (5) galloping with the chariot while maidens led the way. The axel blazing in the nave, sent forth a panspipe sound (for it was hard pressed by whirling wheels on both sides.) When hastening to escort me into the light, the hand maidens of the sun left the halls of night, throwing back (10) their veils from their faces with their hands.

There are the gates of the ways of both Night and Day. They have an embracing lintel and a marble threshold, They are aetherial, but closed by great doors. And Much-Avenging Justice holds the keys for their alternating bolts. (15) The maidens having appeased her with soft words, wisely persuaded her so that she quickly threw back the bolted bar from the gates for them. And the gates flying open made a yawning chasm, bronze (20) axels revolving alternately on bolts in hollow pipes fastened by spikes.

Then straight through them the maidens guided the chariot and mares along the highway. And the Goddess greeted me graciously, taking my right hand in hers, and speaking words in this way, addressed me; “O youth, accompanied by immortal charioteers and the (25) mares which bear you to reach our dwelling, welcome, since no evil fate sent you forth to come this way, (which is indeed far from the paths of men) but Order and Justice.

It is right for you to learn by enquiry all things
Both the calm heart of well-rounded truth,
(30) and the opinions of mortals, among which there is no persuasive truth.
And in the same way also you will learn these things how the appearances rightfully appear to be, all being in the midst of each.”

II

Come now, I will tell you,
And you having heard the myth carry it away.
These are the only ways of enquiry for thought,
The one that it is and that it can not ‘not be’
It is a way of persuasion, for it attends upon truth.
(5) The other, that it is not and it is right not to be,
This I point out to you to be a deluded way,
for neither could you know not-Being
For that is impossible, nor could you point it out.

III

For both Intellection and Being are the same.

IV

Behold things absent, yet securely present to mind;
For one will not cut off Being from clinging to Being,
Neither scattering it wholly throughout the cosmos
Nor combining together.

V

It is impartial to me, where I shall begin
for I shall come back there again.

VI

It is right both saying and thinking that Being is,
For it is possible to be,
But Not-Being is not possible.
I bid you ponder these.
Now from this first way [I hold you back]
But next from this,
(5) on which mortals knowing nothing wander two headed;
For in them helplessness guides the wandering mind in their hearts;
They are borne violently along
Alike deaf, dumb, and blind, amazed,
Uncritical crowds by whom
Being and Not-Being are thought to be the same and not the same.
It is the backwards turning way of all things.

VII

For never shall this be demonstrated, that Not-Being is,
And from this way of enquiry hold back your thought,
Nor let habit force you down this much experienced way
Guiding aimless eye and echoing ear and tongue,
(5) but judge by reason this much contested refutation spoken by me

VIII

And still a solitary myth of the way remains, ‘is’;
And on this way there are very many signs
that Being is unborn and indestructible,
Complete, unique, and both calm and perfect;
(5) it neither was at sometime, nor will be, since it is now all alike, one, embracing;
for what birth will you seek out for it?
How and from what place did it grow?
Nor will I allow you to say, ‘from Not-Being,’ nor to think it
For it is unsayable and unthinkable that ‘it is not’
And what necessity would stir it up
(10) later rather than earlier to grow
Starting from nothing?
Thus either Being rightfully is altogether, or it is not.
Nor will the force of persuasion ever allow
anything to come to be out of Not-Being.
On account of that neither being born nor perishing have been released,
(15) Justice having loosened their bonds, but she keeps them.
The decision is in this way, ‘is’ or ‘is not’;
One must decide then,
That the one way is unthinkable and unnamable,
For it is not the way of Truth
So that the other is and is true.
But how could Being become? And how could it be generated?
(20) For it were generated, it is not,
Nor is it, if at some time it will be.
Thus genesis and unheard of death have been extinguished.
Neither is it separated, since it is all alike.
Nor is it anymore here, which would hinder it from holding together,
nor is it any less there
But all is quite full of Being.
(25) For this reason, it is all continuous,
For Being clings to Being,
But it is unmoving in the limits of great bonds.
It is without beginning or ending,
Since genesis and destruction have been driven very far away, forced back by the persuasion of truth.
The same which both remains in itself
And stands fast by itself, in this way remains;
(30) for mighty Necessity keeps it in bonds of limits,
and restrains it all around.
On account of order,
Being is not other than perfectly complete.
For it is not lacking,
For if it were, it would be lacking everything,
And intellection is the same as that on account of which there is intellectual perception.
(35) For in what is expressed you will not find
Intellection without being.
For nothing else either is or will be apart form Being
Since the Fates bound it to be complete and immobile;
To it all names have been given such as mortals have assigned, believing them to be true,
(40) both coming to be and destruction,
To be and not to be,
Through change of place and exchange of bright color.
But since there is finally a limit it is perfected.
From all sides resembling
The mass of a well rounded sphere
Reaching our from the center equally in every way;
(45) for being neither greater here nor lesser there is right;
For neither is there Not-Being which might hinder it from reaching the same,
nor is Being such that there might be more of Being here or less there, since all is inviolate.
For it is from all sides equal, reaching alike in limits.
(50) In this mark you. I pause in my persuasive speech and intellection about Truth
But learn from this, the opinions of mortals. Hearing the deceitful order of my words,
For they decided to name two thought forms,
The unity of which is not rightfully named
In this they have wandered,
(55) and they distinguished contraries in form and signs
Assuming them to be separate from one another,
On the one hand the bright blazing flame of fire, being gentle, very light,
with respect to itself the same in every place,
But the other is not the same;
But that is in itself the contrary
dark night, close and heavy in form.
(60) I will tell you the probable order of all things
so that no opinion of mortals will ever surpass yours.

IX

But when indeed all things had been named Light and Night and these (distributed)
According to their powers,
Both for these and those,
All is full alike of light and of invisible night,
Both equally,
Since neither of the two has a share of Not-Being

X

And you will see the bright upper air,
Both its nature and all the signs in it,
And the invisible works of the clear bright light of the sun,
You will learn abut the nature and wanderings works of
The round-eyed moon.
(5) You will also see heaven embracing them, that in which it grew
and how Necessity guided it and fettered it
To hold the limits of the stars.

XI

How Earth, sun and moon,
The bright upper air and the inseparable milky Way
And heaven and outermost Olympus
And the burning power of the stars
Were stirred up to come to be.

XII

For the denser regions are filled with pure fire
While those that come after with night,
And a share of light is let loose among them;
In the midst of these is the Goddess who steers all things;
For to each she begins abominable birth and mixing
(5) sending women to mingle with men and the opposite, men to women.

XIII

First of all the gods she contrived Eros.

XIV

Shining by night with borrowed light
Wandering about the earth.

XV

Always looking toward the Sun’s rays.

XVI

For as the blending of the much wandering limbs is,
So mind comes to men.
For it is the same what the nature of the limbs apprehends
Both to each and to all,
For the fullness is intellection.

XVII

On the right boys, on the left girls.

XVIII

When woman and man blend the seeds of love together,
The power forming from opposite blood in the veins,
By preserving proper proportion, shapes a well-formed body.
Now if the powers fight when the seeds are blended, they will torment the growing embryo by the conflict of double seed.

XIX

Thus mark you according to opinion, these grew and now are and afterward having grown from this will be completed, and to these men have given a name as a sign.