And Another Medical Poem

[Nick Capozzoli]

Here's one I wrote just before I graduated from med school. At their graduation ceremony medical students traditionally recite The Hippocratic Oath. You can find the original Greek version along with a literal English translation in the Loeb Classical Library. About 40 or so years ago US med schools stopped using the original Oath, and began using "updated" equivalents. That is probably because the original Oath insists on a few things that are problematic for modern medicine...such as prohibitions on prescribing "pessaries" to induce abortion (and by extension abortion in general), as well as some other tidbits, such as providing medical education free of charge to the offspring of physicians...

I took the new and approved Oath along with my fellow graduates, but I wasn't enthusiastic about it. For one thing, it seemed rather dully phrased and uninspiring, though I could see that it was more politically correct than Hippocrates' version. So I approached the original Oath as I would approach a poem in another language (in this case Greek, which I can read to some degree due to having studied it for a year in college). This led to the following, which is not an accurate translation so much as an "approximation" that I hope would capture some of the meaning of the original oath that was lost in the "approved and modern" version we had to recite. Some may like my version and others may object to it. It is what it is.

The Oath
after Hippocrates

I swear by Almighty God, the One
Who made us living, sentient, and Who
Alone is Master of life and death,
That I will always do my best
To comfort mankind suffering
In body or in soul, without regard
To wealth or station, treating all alike
Who ask for me. Their calling is enough
And is the honor of our sacred trust.
I swear to never breathe abroad,
No matter how coerced or bribed,
What I learn in trust from those
Who call me in their hour of need.
To comfort always, heal at times, I’ll use
All art and science I command against
Affliction. Above all I will do no
Harm. I will not give, though asked,
A deadly drug to end a life, nor kill
Outright by any means. Yet I’ll use
Whatever drugs our art provides
To dull great pain. Though we hate Death,
At times it is the only end of pain;
But God alone administers that drug.

If I live always by this solemn oath,
May honor be upon my life and name.
If I do not, then may eternal shame
Be on my soul and follow it to Hell.

[AuntShecky]

Can't fault the earnestness of this one, which begins like a Boy Scout pledge --"that I will always do my best"-- and ends like a flagellating self-accusation a la St. Theresa. There may be some issues with the line break decisions (e.g. lines 16-17), but otherwise it reads smoothly. You might want to fix the split infinitive in l. 10 ("to never breathe. . .")

[Nick Capozzoli]

Can't fault the earnestness of this one, which begins like a Boy Scout pledge --"that I will always do my best"-- and ends like a flagellating self-accusation a la St. Theresa. There may be some issues with the line break decisions (e.g. lines 16-17), but otherwise it reads smoothly. You might want to fix the split infinitive in l. 10 ("to never breathe. . .")

Thanks for the comments! I'll live with the split infinitive, since the meaning is clear, doesn't jar the syntax or rhythm, and changing it to "I swear never to breathe abroad" would jar the rhythm. It is kind of earnestly Boy Scouty, but so is the original. As for the St. Theresa-like self-flaggelation, that was also there in the Oath, many centuries before either Christ or St. Theresa. Indeed, it is pretty much a standard feature of oaths, from all historical periods, to contain strong admonitions against, and penalties for, violation of the sworn behavior.