Hymns and Fragments

by Friedrich Hölderlin, Richard Sieburth (Translator)

Drawing on the most recent scholarship, this annotated translation conveys the radical idiom and vision that continue to make Friedrich Holderlin a contemporary. Including his late poems in free rhythms from the years between 1801 and 1806, the period just prior to his hospitalization for insanity.

Genres: Poetry, Germany, Romanticism, German Literature, Classics, Literature

312 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1983

About the author

Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a major German lyric poet, commonly associated with the artistic movement known as Romanticism. Hölderlin was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism, particularly his early association with and philosophical influence on his seminary roommates and fellow Swabians Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling.

Reviews

[Paul H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The greatest single work of Western poetry published in the past two thousand years; like the very best Greek lyric poets, but better.

[Erick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holderlin was one among a group of German Romantic poets that were on the periphery of German Idealism. Along with Novalis and Schiller, his work utilizes Idealist concepts in an overtly aesthetic framework. Like many German Romantic poets and philosophers, he is often ignored by the sottish tendency to over indulge in the less memorable and often pointless philosophers of the late 19th and 20th century. This book is a collection of some of his later poetry. His output came to an end after losing his mind. He is often cited as an influence of Nietzsche. This is hardly a worthy addendum to his life and work, however. Nietzsche wished he could have been Holderlin in truth. Nietzsche was able to emulate his madness, but not his aesthetic beauty. He emulated his language, but not his profundity. Sadly, Nietzsche took the high bar that was set by poets and philosophers like Holderlin and lowered it significantly. Egoism is utterly at odds with Holderlin and the Idealists in general. Even though Holderlin did go mad, just as Nietzsche did, Holderlin lost his wits before he lost his mind, whereas Nietzsche lost his mind before he lost his wits. In other words, Holderlin was aware when his illness was approaching and stopped his output before madness crept in; Nietzsche was unaware of his madness when it was already apparent -way before he showed a fondness for horses. I say all of that because the attempt to lump Holderlin in with Nietzsche, as is often done, does him an incredible disservice and misrepresents him terribly. He should be known for something more than an influence of Nietzsche's.
Holderlin's poetry owes a lot to the Greek classic and epic poets. He attempted to use the Greek poetic syntax in the German language. German and Greek share certain commonalities of structure and nuance that allowed Holderlin to do this successfully. In English translation some of this is lost, but he wrote largely in free verse so no rhyming scheme is lost in translation. Not everyone will be able to appreciate his poetry. He is actually unique among the Romantic poets; his structures are often complex and betray a theme not always readily apparent. There is some verse in here that is quite profound and would be utterly lost on the average Nietzschean I would wager.
I have just started to read Holderlin's prose works, which are incredibly important for Idealism; even though they often do not get the credit they deserve. He marks the point between Fichte and Hegel in the tradition of Idealism. Novalis has some place there as well, but his writings are often of a more mystical variety than an Idealist one. I am more familiar with Novalis' prose works and I have not read his poetry, so I don't know if stylistically the two poets are similar. Holderlin does share some basic Romantic tendencies with Blake and Coleridge and I would definitely recommend him to people who like those poets.”

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Romantic odes grappling with legacies the old gods, shot through with still surprising flashes of modernity. A poetry of vivid gaps and slashing insights. Visionary stuff.

[Carolyn Gelland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holderlin said that he was struck by Apollo and I believe him. He is a poet of praise, dazzling like Pindar (some of whose Odes he translated), but with a modern vulnerability and brokenness and wistfulness that allows him to meditate on the terrifying withdrawal of God from the world (as in "Patmos").

A brilliant philosopher as well, who was a fellow-student and close friend of Hegel and Schelling, his poetry reaches with great art to discover an ultimate simplicity:

"Would I like to be a comet? I think so.
They are swift as birds, they flower
With fire, childlike in purity. To desire
More than this is beyond human measure."
(In lovely blue...)

Brilliantly translated and introduced by Richard Sieburth

[Jacob Rowland]

Obv can't say I'm finished with this, especially since my German is still not good enough to fully ~read~ him in the original, but wanted to make a little note. I think this kind of fragmentary style of author is so fascinating (Kafka, Simone Weil, etc.). I think Hölderlin is great proof that there is something beyond pure accident and neglect that makes these writers so mysterious and unfinished-feeling. There is clearly an intentional fragmentation in the poems, it is a 18th century german trying to write like an ancient greek (who seems, according to the editor at least, to have invented the kind of layout
which tell us that
something is a
modern
poem
)
yet there is also the genuine influence of fate: that he went mad and never wrote again for the last 40 years of his life, that nearly nothing of his was published in his lifetime, the strange drafts of essays responding to Hegel (his college roommate). The essays are particularly fascinating to me, though I know nothing about them. Anyway I'm loving the poems thought they are very difficult even in English. I can thank Heidegger and the film The Ister (neither of whom I understand) for the kind of alluring curiosity I have for this kraut. Favorite poems right now are Half of Life, Ages of Life, Patmos, and The Ister.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holderlin's visions and style was a hundred years ahead of its time.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Holderlin in English.

[Esforçonulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

ele não era "louco", estava só a farmar aura.