When Poetry Fell in Love with Philosophy: Robert Bringhurst and Sophocles’ Meditation on Human Nature

Abstract

espanolEste articulo trata de elucidar un poema titulado «Of the Snaring of Birds», incluido en la secuencia poetica del autor canadiense Robert Bringhurst titulada The Old in Their Knowing (2005). Dedicado al filosofo aleman Martin Heidegger, «Of the Snaring of Birds» se desvela como una elocuente version, no como traduccion fiel y literal, del texto griego original de Sofocles, y encierra una profunda meditacion sobre lo que nos hace verdaderamente humanos. Bringhurst encuentra la inspiracion literaria en un texto de mas de 2400 anos y lo renueva para aquellos lectores del siglo XXI que aun estan avidos por escuchar las intuiciones y hallazgos de nuestros ancestros. EnglishThis article aims at shedding light on a poem entitled “Of the Snaring of Birds”, one of the twelve pieces included in Canadian poet Robert Bringhurst’s The Old in Their Knowing (2005). Dedicated to German philosopher Martin Heidegger, “Of the Snaring of Birds” turns out to be a most eloquent version, not a faithful rendering, of the original Greek text, as well as a probing meditation on what makes us truly human. Bringhurst finds literary sustenance in a 2,400-year-old text and makes it brand new for 21st-century readers who still care to listen to the insights of our ancestors.