Re: conversing with Epicurus (poem)

Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquility (ataraxia) and freedom from fear, as well as absence of bodily pain (aponia) through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of one’s desires. The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form.

I am having a conversation with a dead man

not being an educated person
I never tried this before as no one ever told me I could

I have talked to those still alive
whose values live in words close to our time
I have translated those words
and felt the deeper menings and intentions in my heart or my mind
the intoxication of their personal brilliance or their excitement

But I have never met someone so vehemently alone in himself
as Epicurus

And I found as well that he
so much dust of our Earth was living and breathing
through out time because he
had only one way of dealing with his loneliness
aiming for a cure never finding it:

He told the whole world
who he was
the best way he could
and with all his good intentions for all
at the core of every sentence

What a lonely man
and how brave to having lived and
to be alive
so

Author: krabat

digter, forlægger, oversætter, admin på kunstnerhotellet menneske.dk

One thought on “Re: conversing with Epicurus (poem)”

  1. Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus, founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His determinism led him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom very little is known—Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquility (ataraxia) and freedom from fear, as well as absence of bodily pain (aponia) through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of one’s desires. The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form. Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from “hedonism” as it is commonly understood.
    In the Epicurean view, the highest pleasure (tranquility and freedom from fear) was obtained by knowledge, friendship, and living a virtuous and temperate life. He lauded the enjoyment of simple pleasures, by which he meant abstaining from bodily desires, such as sex and appetites, verging on asceticism. He argued that when eating, one should not eat too richly, for it could lead to dissatisfaction later, such as the grim realization that one could not afford such delicacies in the future. Likewise, sex could lead to increased lust and dissatisfaction with the sexual partner. Epicurus did not articulate a broad system of social morality that has survived.

    WIKIPEDIA

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