Hymns to the Night (English and German Edition) [Paperback]

Dick Higgins (Author), Novalis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1988

This bilingual, revised, third edition of Dick Higgins' popular translation presents the complete Athenaum version of Frederich von Hardenburgh's classic romantic long poem, and the substantially different manuscript version of the first section. The German text is en face. The six hymns comprise a deeply affecting poem that speaks across the centuries with unquestioned radiance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Appropriate for general readers and for scholars interested in the art of translation. -- Choice

Language Notes

Text: English, German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 55 pages
• Publisher: McPherson; 3 Sub edition (January 1, 1988)
• Language: English, German
• ISBN-10: 0914232908
• ISBN-13: 978-0914232902
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > German
  • #10 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Single Authors > Continental European
  • #21 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Anthologies

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry and Philosophy, April 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Hymns to the Night (English and German Edition) (Paperback)

The German culture can be said to oscillate between two extremes. The first is the predisposition to obsessively systematize and classify life's experience into knowledge with a calm and indifferent demeanor. The second is the reverse tendency to discard the rational and dive off into the realm of the fantastic and the perverse, the moody and the emotionally erratic. Novalis presents a fascinating case study in paradoxically representing both of the tendencies. His "Hymns to the Night" are filled with despair, longing, and a visionary quality that sort of puts one into a trance when reading. However hidden beneath this highly charged emotional atmosphere are layers of allegory and thought. Hence what we have here is that unique poem which combines a very human story of loss, sorrow, and grief with intriguing philosophical meditations on love, [end of life], religion, resurrection, and the relation of mind and body. Much more could be said and should be said. But additional details would spoil the joy of discovering the beauty of the poem on your own....

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Poems; Dreadful Translation, August 28, 2005

By 

Carnamagos "Carnamagos" (Northeastern U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hymns to the Night (English and German Edition) (Paperback)

Five stars for the *Hymns*; zero stars for the (mis)translation

Novalis's *Hymns to the Night* are a true gem of late 18th-Century Romantic poetry. A brilliant and original mingling of prose-poetry and verse, the *Hymns* celebrate night, darkness, and death as bearers of tremendous revelation. They do so in supple, elegant, and sensuous language filled with yearning for a deeper reality than that which gaudy daylight reveals. Particularly notable is the erotic dimension of this Romantic yearning, or *Sehnsucht*, that Novalis daringly offers the reader.

Given the above, one can only react with disgust at Dick Higgins's vulgar travesty of the *Hymns*. His specious and, not to put too fine a point on it, idiotic rationalization for butchering this work is that Novalis's language was modern for its time; therefore, to preserve that flavor, it should be rendered into the modern "poetic" idiom of, say, William Carlos Williams and other banal writers of simple prose disguised as poetry by dividing it into lines and pseudo-stanzas. Higgins has simplified Novalis to the point of idiocy.

Those English-speaking readers who wish to read the *Hymns* as Novalis wrote them should consult the Charles Passage and George Macdonald translations. They are hardly perfect, but, unlike Higgin's's misbegotten manglings, they represent Novalis's magnificent *Hymns* with at least a modicum of their original dignity intact. It would be wonderful to have a competent and faithful contemporary English translation of the *Hymns*. Higgin's translation, however, is not that work. *Caveat lector*.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars too literal, February 19, 2009

By 

Charles Haddox (El Paso, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hymns to the Night (English and German Edition) (Paperback)

This translation is almost freakishly literal. As a result it doesn't work as poetry. The old George Macdonald translation is much better at capturing the spirit of the poem in poetic language. Having the German original in this edition on facing pages is nice, and some of Higgin's translation is illuminating, but ultimately it does not do justice to the original.