Speaking Truth to Power

A recurrent feature in the last two decades of Seamus Heaney’s literary career was his immersion in classical, particularly Hellenic culture, which in itself sprang from a longstanding interest in literary translation and translating. Until recently relatively little critical attention was paid to Heaney’s role as a translator, due in part to the erroneous assumption that such activity was somehow peripheral to his literary project, rather than a significant element within it. Taking its cue from a contrary view first voiced by Alan Peacock, this essay offers a detailed analysis of The Burial at Thebes, the second of two of Sophocles’ plays adapted by Heaney, evaluating the quality of its poetry, tracing connections between it and Heaney’s other writings, identifying the contexts which helped shape its creation, and citing those crucial instances or clinamen where Heaney diverges from previous translators to forge ‘something new’.