The Cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney

After reading his translation of Antigone for the Abbey Theater, I found that the only other Greek tragedy Seamus translated was Sophocles' Philoctetes.  As with Antigone, this is a slim book of beautiful poetry that, like an amuse bouche, is a pleasurable diversion from the tomes I typically carry around.

Of course, apologies to my classicist son, I had no idea who Philoctetes was (although I think my pronunciation of Greek names has improved tremendously under his tutelage).  And his carrying around all of Homer as a teenager at least lets me recognize the cast of characters.

But what I enjoy most about these two short plays are:  (1) Seamus' poetry.  The thought just flitted through my head that he is sort of a precursor to the current hip hop version of Hamilton on the Broadway stage in that he seamlessly converts history into something that a contemporary audience can understand, appreciate and feel its relevance to their lives.  Like Antigone, Philoctetes is a victim of war crimes and bad politicians ... what could be more au courant?  Issues of forced isolation, betrayal of alliances, and conspiracies over powerful weapons unfortunately resonate now and someone unfamiliar with the Iliad and Odyssey could misread the story as contemporary anti-war propaganda.  But back to the meter and rhyme:  I'd love to see either play produced but on the blank page, his verses are beautiful.

The chorus introduces the theme "Between the gods' and human beings' sense of things.  And that's the borderline that poetry operates on too, always in between what you would like to happen and what will -- whether you like it or not."  I think these lines alone tipped the scale for me to order The Dawning Moon of the Mind, a book that translates the hieroglyphics of the pyramids.  I peaked into the prologue yesterday to find "Poetry and religion arise from the same source, the perception of the mystery of life."  Susan Rind Morrow notes the importance of how a writer says something as vital to what is said; of course, her work is overlaid with pictures as well.  I am meandering here, but these thoughts are directing my readings beyond biographics this year into how things are written and expressed and why humans need to verbalize the common questions on life and death, loyalty and treachery, will and group reins, manhood and deity.

But back to Heaney quotes.moving freely between classic theatrical iambic pentameter, Seamus has the chorus shift into almost a doggerel of six beats to lines of five verses that almost seem like a syncopated rap:

"Human beings suffer
But not to this extent:
You would wonder if it's meant.
Why him more than another?
What is the sense of it?"

The more lofty lines of IP becomes more "street culture" and the audience sees themselves with the chorus trying to relate this tale of war to their own personal issues.  Heany also drops in straight prose paragraphs so that Philoctetes curse of Odysseus sounds like a dictum, completely void of the finesse of poetry.  I wish there were Heaney translated plays to read but I have been led to read his Nobel prize winning series of lectures at Oxford and also further explore the relationship between the need for poetry vis a vis the search for the spiritual.