Odes and Elegies

by Friedrich Holderlin, Nick Hoff (Translator)

Overview

Friedrich Hölderlin emerged in the early 20th century as one of the key figures of modern European literature. This comprehensive selection of over 80 of his odes, hexameters, and elegies is taken from the important early period of his mature work—a time in which we encounter the poet open to nature and love with a rare vulnerability. The translations in Odes and Elegies, including poems never before available in English, render forcefully and directly the deep longing and heartbreak of Hölderlin’s poetic world; their open, pathos-filled rhythm and disarming clarity present Hölderlin’s powerful work as distinctive English poems. A bilingual edition, this book also includes informative annotations and translations of drafts and revisions that give deep insight into Hölderlin’s craft and process, shining new light on the unique poetic voice that marks Hölderlin’s achievement and continuing influence on poetry and philosophy today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819568908
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	12/31/2008
Series:	Wesleyan Poetry Series
Edition description:	Bilingual German-English ed.
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

FRIEDRICH HÖLDERLIN (1770–1843), whose work has influenced such figures as Rilke, Celan, Heidegger, Adorno, and Benjamin, is considered by many to be one of the most important German lyric poets. NICK HOFF is a writer and translator who lives in San Francisco. His translations have been published in Telos, Left Curve, and other journals.

Table of Contents

ABOUT THIS BOOK
INTRODUCTION
ABOUT THE TRANSLATIONS
THE POEMS
POEMS FROM THE EARLY FRANKFURT PERIOD
The Oaks
To the Aether
[and, smiling, the sovereigns…]
To Diotima (“Beautiful creature…”)
Diotima (“You favorite of the heavenly muse…”)
Leisure
[The nations were silent, they slumbered…]
To Diotima (“Come and look at all the joy…”)
THE SHORTER ODES
The Unpardonable
Then and Now
The Lovers
To the Germans (two stanzas)
Her Recovery
To the Young Poets
The Course of Life (one stanza)
To Her Genius
Brevity
To the Fates
Apology
Good Faith
Diotima (“You fall silent and suffer…”; two stanzas)
Home (two stanzas)
Human Applause
The Sanctimonious Poets
Socrates and Alcibiades
To Our Great Poets
To the Sun God
Sunset
Voice of the People (two stanzas)
LATER ODES; ELEGIES AND ELEGIAC FRAGMENTS
[When I was a boy…]
[Hyperion’s Song of Fate]
Achilles
[Time was the gods walked with men…]
Man
The Temperamental Ones
Dying for the Fatherland
The Time-Spirit
Evening Fantasy
In the Morning
The Main
Five Epigrams

Sophocles
[The Angry Poet]
[The Jokers]
Root of All Evil
What is Mine
[Each day I walk…]
[Go now and set, O beautiful sun…]
The Gods
Heidelberg
The Neckar
Empedocles
To the Germans (14 stanzas)
Rousseau
Home (six stanzas)
Love
The Course of Life (four stanzas)
Her Recovery (six stanzas)
Diotima (“You fall silent and suffer…”; six stanzas)
Return to the Homeland
The Poet’s Calling
The Voice of the People (second version; 18 stanzas)
The Poet’s Courage (second version)
The Fettered River
The Blind Singer
Stuttgart
The Walk in the Country
Bread and Wine
Homecoming
Bread and Wine (revised version)
NIGHTSONGS
Chiron
Tears
To Hope
Vulcan
Timidity
Ganymede
Half of Life
Ages of Life
The Shelter at Hardt
APPENDIX A: NOTES TO THE POEMS
POEMS, FRAGMENTS, AND REVISED STANZAS TRANSLATED IN APPENDIX A
The Oaks (plan for alternative ending)
Buonaparte
To the Universally Known
To Neuffer
Descriptive Poetry
[If I could hear the warning ones now…]
Achilles (plan for alternative ending)
The Battle
In the Morning (earlier draft of ending)
Heidelberg (stanzas from earlier draft)
To the Germans (alternate draft of ending)
Her Recovery (alternate draft of ending)
Diotima (earlier second stanza)
Return to the Homeland (revised stanzas)
The Poet’s Calling (alternate draft of ending)
Voice of the People (earlier draft of ending)
The Poet’s Courage (first version)
The Walk in the Country (alternate draft of ending)
Homecoming (revision of last three stanzas)
Request (last stanza)
APPENDIX B CHRONOLOGY OF HÖLDERIN’S LIFE

What People are Saying About This

Keith Waldrop

“The poems come out as English poems, but—as Dryden would have put it—poems Hölderlin might have written, had he been writing in English.”

Werner Herzog

"Hölderlin, the greatest of all German poets, explored the outer limits and the deepest depths of the German language, and has been considered untranslatable. We have waited so long for an English translation that does justice to the inexplicable mystery of his early mature work; with Hoff’s beautiful versions we have one at last."