Cologne 24-Dec-2005

"It is regarded as the oldest saying of Western thinking." (M.H. 'Der
Spruch des Anaximander' _Holzwege_ Klostermann, Frankfurt/M. 1950, 6th
corrected printing 1980 S.317)

_ex hoon de hae genesis esti tois ousi kai taen phthoran eis tauta
ginesthei

kata to chreoon; didonai gar auta dikaen kai tisin allaelois taes
adikias

kata taen tou chronou taxin._

Only the middle line is regarded by philologists as genuinely being
Anaximander's words.

Nietzsche translates:
"Woher die Dinge ihre Entstehung haben, dahin müssen sie auch zu Grunde
gehen, nach der Notwendigkeit; denn sie müssen Buße zahle und für ihre
Ungerechtigkeiten gerichtet werden, gemäß der Ordnung der Zeit."

Diels translates:
"Woraus aber die Dinge das Entstehen haben, dahin geht auch ihr Vergehen
nach der Notwendigkeit; denn sie zahlen einander Strafe und Buße für
ihre Ruchlosigkeit nach der festgesetzten Zeit."

Heidegger translates Anaximander's words (the middle line):

"...entlang dem Brauch; gehören nämlich lassen sie Fug somit auch Ruch
eines dem anderen (im Verwinden) des Un-Fugs." (S.367)

Heidegger's attempt at a translation depends, as he underscores, in
first translating ourselves in thinking across into the domain of
experience whence the saying is said. Only through this first
translation will a translation in the usual sense succeed.

The first point that Heidegger makes is that Anaximander is not a
"natural philosopher" and the beings (_ta onta_) of which he speaks ARE
NOT JUST NATURAL BEINGS, but ALL beings, including natural things, made
things, gods and human beings, circumstances, practices, moods, etc. So
much for the obsession with buds and blossoms as the epitome of
_physis_.

Anaximander's language is also not a 'metaphorical', 'poetic' language.
It seems intellectuals today (or perhaps in any given time) are so soggy
in their thinking that they can only think in terms of metaphors, i.e.
they do not think at all. Nonetheless, thinking is the originary
poetizing, i.e. casting into a cast of being.

Greek _tisis_ can mean 'Buße', 'penance', but more originarily,
Heidegger points out it means "Schätzen", 'estimation'. I point out that
_tisis_ is related to _timaoo_ 'to esteem, value, honour, revere' and
_timae_ 'esteem, value, estimation, honour'.

Considering all Heidegger says in his essay from 1946, and twisting it,
here is an attempted translation of Anaximander's fragment into English.

"Whence all beings come to presence, however, thither they also leave
presence

according to the handing-out, for they do justice, esteeming each other,
thus bringing everything into joint

according to the order of time."

"Handing-out" (_chreoon_) is thus the earliest thinkerly name for being
itself.

The coming of beings into presence and the going of beings into absence
takes place in the clearing of presence itself that encompasses both
presence and absence, disclosure and hiddenness. Being (presence itself)
grants, i.e. hands out, the time for beings to take their stand in
presence in the transition from coming to presence and leaving it into
absence. In-jointness (justice) is when beings do not persist in
standing in the clearing beyond their time, but esteem and value each
other only for their allotted time. Esteeming and valuing each other
(_allaelois_) is the originary _metabolae_, i.e. exchange (cf. my
Cologne Theses from June 2004).


Michael
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