by Seamus Heaney
History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave…
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.
Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.
The Cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney is an adaptation, written in verse, of Sophocles’ play Philoctetes. It premiered in 409AD. Heaney’s verses were first performed in 1990 and published in 1991. Almost 1,600 years had passed. Sixteen centuries. Yet the story of the master Greek archer Philoctetes abandoned on a desert island by his fellow soldiers and countryman, then asked to return to fight in the Trojan War resonated with Heaney. He reflected in his verses the return of Nelson Mandela to his people, after 27 years in prison, to continue the fight against Apartheid.