dwsChorale: Music

Heraclitus

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Charles Villiers Stanford

The poem, by William Cory, is based on an epigram by the ancient Greek poet Callimachus.

The friend in question is not the philosopher (who lived a few centuries before Callimachus) but a poet called Heraclitus of Halicarnassus (the most important town in the region of Caria in what is now Western Turkey [hence "Carian guest"]).

The collection of poems which which he is associated is referred to as "The Nightingales", (αηδονες).

They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,
They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.
I wept as I remember'd how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.

And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,
A handful of grey ashes, long, long ago at rest,
Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;
For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.

In case you wish to read the original Greek epigram, along with a recent translation by Frank Nisetich, you can find it in this enlightening thesis by Alexander Hall.