Verse

Use in the book

The dative plural ἔπεσιν refers to the quoted verse in which the god brings like to like. Socrates asks whether Lysis has encountered these verses, before turning to written treatments of nature.

The word identifies the poetic form of the source, whereas the argument must still determine what the saying means and whether it holds. In this occurrence “verses” is more informative than the broad translation “words.”

Places to read

1. 214bτούτοις τοῖς ἔπεσιν — These verses.

Use in the book

Verse is required to say something, whereas music is allowed to say nothing if it sounds good. The comparison does not deny verbal music; it marks an additional obligation of verse. Joubert also attributes poetry’s degeneration partly to verse no longer being made for singing, keeping the two arts related without identifying them. The self-correction about versets distinguishes short prose or scriptural units from metrical verse: he first ranks versets after good verse in difficulty, then explicitly reverses the ranking. The correction is part of the thought, not an editorial inconsistency to remove.

Places to read

1. II, p. 654, entry 10, ¶1Verse must say something, unlike the stated sufficient condition for music.
2. I, p. 265, entry 5, ¶1Loss of singing is proposed as one cause of poetry’s degeneration.
3. II, p. 680, entry 11, ¶1Joubert corrects his ranking of good verse and good versets.

Translation in this edition

The English translation retains versets as a technical term distinct from verse. “I was wrong” and the repeated comparisons remain. Vers can also mean toward; that directional use is distinct from verse.