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Hyperion and Selected Poems: Friedrich Hlderlin (German Library)

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Hölderlin today deserves to enjoy a much wider readership than ever before given the veneration afforded to him by none other than Martin Heidegger for whom he was the greatest of the great. Sadly, Hölderlin was to leave us only one completed novel before his final descent into madness and obscurity but, my goodness, it is a gem of the greatest philosophic and poetic depth. This is without doubt one of the truly greatest novels to have ever been written. Certainly there is the typically German influence of music on this contemporary of Beethoven, hence the idea of applying the structural principles of sonata-allegro form to the novel. Anyone familiar with the musicological musings of Nikolaus Harnoncourt will know that the principles of sonata form structure in music were originally grounded on the classical principles of rhetoric - the art of presenting arguments - with all of its origins in Aristotle and which was a corner stone of education at this time. At the same time Hölderlin was to enjoy friendship with none other the great Hegel himself, thus lending this novel a philosophical profundity perhaps unrivalled by any in history - even by Camus or Satre.

The novel is set on the backdrop of a classical Greece of ancient ruins but occupied by the Ottoman Empire. Hyperion yearns to reawaken the glories of Classical Greece but kindles Romantic dreams of fighting for the liberation of his homeland, and leaves his idyllic Mediterranean world and the love of his life to fight in the name of freedom. The story unfolds in masterly fashion, enriched with its perfect balance of a nostalgic dreaming after a lost Classical world, matched with a Romatic passion for freedom and is told in the form of letters exchanged between Hyperion and friends in his idyllic homeland, all of which provide grippingly intense reading from start to finish.

The final lengthy epilog is some of the most profound philosophical meditations to ever appear in a novel. You can see why he won Heidegger's veneration when you read them. In this age where in central Europe at least, Hölderlin's star only gets brighter, Hyperion is absolutey essential reading. This is without doubt my favourite novel of all time, a work of rare profundity akin to Beethoven's late string quartets - so esoteric yet utterly divine in the profundity of its utterance.

While Holderlin's poetry is truly brilliant and is his link to modernism, his single novel 'Hyperion' is also a major artistic achievement. Much more profound than its close epistolary relative and predecessor 'Sorrows of Young Werther', 'Hyperion' contains some of the most inticate and elegant prose in all of literature. Holderlin successfully attempts to impose the sonata structure in music upon a novel, and, even if he wrote nothing else, he would still rank among the greatest of German writers. The above is not meant to devalue Holderlin's poetry - his best poems being ineffably beautiful and timeless - but is only intended to bestow upon 'Hyperion' a higher place in Holderlin's oeuvre.

Eric L. Santner has collected a varitable who's who of Hölderlin translators in this wonderful edition. The centerpiece is Willard R. Trask's 1965 complete translation of Hyperion, though the version presented here calls for some comment.

Santner writes (Intro, xxxvi), Trask's translation "has been adapted by David Schwarz with an eye toward preserving the jarring strangeness of Hölderlin's diction so that it strikes the American reader precisely as strange rather than merely foreign or archaic." Santner makes no more mention about this so-called "adaptation," nor are there notes in the text indicating what, if anything has been changed. A comparison with the original Trask work (sadly out of print) shows that in places the translation does indeed change radically, though the overall impression is that Schwarz worked more on adapting and smoothing the English than on re-translating the German. This is a good thing, on the whole, and does almost no real damage to the strength of Trask's original translation. In fact, the general tenor of the German is preserved and even enhanced by Schwarz's adaptation of Trask. One could wish for more comment on the adaptation, but leave that lie.

The matter of translations, of course, always comes down to the ability to work through the text in its original German, and since any translation is at best an interpretation of the original text, the difference between a translation and an adaptation of a translation may matter little. The Schwarz/Trask edition which Santner presents is truly a magnificent piece of literature in its own right. Pity that the preeminent Hölderlin translator, Michael Hamburger, never got around to a full English version of Hyperion.

As it is, this translation preserves the beautiful surreality of so much of the text, particularly the letters between Hyperion and Diotima: "Schade, schade, daß es jetzt nicht besser zugeht unter den Menschen, sonst blieb' ich gern auf diesem guten Stern. Aber ich kann dies Erdenrund entbehren, das ist mehr, denn alles, was es geben kann," or "Alas, alas, that things are not now better among mankind! were it otherwise, I would gladly remain upon this goodly star. But I can forego this globe of the earth, and that is more than all that it can give." A truly magnificent work of literature, and a masterful translation (or adaption, please yourself).

My Professor advised us to read this book without looking for a plot...because we wouldn't find one. He was right: Hyperion is a beautifully written account of one man's reflection on his life; it deals with love, friendship, and man's relationship with Nature. Holderlin's personal love for the Ancient Greeks also resonates throughout the poem. It should be read to enjoy and to be used as personal reflection on one's own life as well; but if you're looking for a plot, don't bother. There really isn't one. Pay close attention to the selection of poems included in the back: some of his better works have been included, and they are printed alongside the original German version as well. German scholars may find some discrepencies in the translations.

I read this in a state of intoxicated bliss. No, I wasn't intoxicated when I read it; the singing prose itself made me drunk with the very CONCEPT of life itself, the illimitable potential that humanity can manifest when it is on the highest road of spiritual and artistic discovery. HYPERION is the literary equivalent of something like Beethoven's "Ode to Joy;" among the very highest and most transcendent monuments of world culture, if imbibed in the proper mood, it can change your life altogether. (And this was only by way of the superb old translation in the Signet Classic, whoever did it was one of the greatest of all English translators...)

Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843) remains - despite continued interest from academics and translators - a less celebrated figure from the world of German Romanticism than Goethe,Schiller and even Novalis.A difficult poet,yes,but a writer who never courted difficulty or ingenuity to appear clever or ostentatious.
This volume from Continuum's German Library remains,to my knowledge,unique:it contains an esteemed translation into English of Holderlin's lyrical, epistolary novel, Hyperion;a wide selection of poems from committed translators like Michael Hamburger, Richard Sieburth and Christopher Middleton;a thought-provoking Introduction by volume Editor Eric L.Santer;and, if all that wasn't enough,a superb bio-chronology charting Holderlin's astonishing life, peppered with copious extracts from his letters.
There have been those who have doubted whether Hyperion is in fact a novel at all in the generally accepted sense of the term,and certainly that view would gain sympathetic readers of the first few pages of Volume One.David Constantine,whose own slim volume of translations of Holderlin's Selected Poems is an occasion of grace,insists with fellow critic Lawrence Ryan that this is,indeed, a novel and should be read as such - but does so with with a typically discerning qualification."...the meeting of such a mind (i.e.one that was uncompromisingly idealist)with such a form is a contradictory one,and the product is peculiar."
Persuasive and convincing though Holderlin's topographical details(of Greece), and political arguments may be,the truth is that this is a novel like no other.To even begin a paraphrase here would be entirely out of place:what can be said emphatically is that what Holderlin has to say in the form of a lyrical novel is entirely of a piece with the vertical reach of the poetry.This is a poet who knows the yearning of the "O famished,beleagured,infinitely troubled heart," - even,and perhaps essentially,of those hearts barely beating in the spiritually desolate wastelands of the post-modern West;a poet who anticipated Dostoevsky in seeing with luminous clarity the danger of reifying the State -"The state has always been made a hell by man's wanting to make it his heaven;"and surely the poet to whom Edwin Muir in his Autobiography was referring when he said:"[...]Dante,who spoke more directly from the heart than any other poet but one."To the already committed,this priceless volume merely confirms Holderlin's unique genius:for newcomers,there can be no better place to begin the journey.

This book is an exemplary romantic text, rebellious, reactionary, naïve and full of misunderstandings.

Attack on reason
For Hölderlin, reason (the Enlightenment) should be replaced by `spontaneous enthusiasm'. This is not less than asking that the evolution be screwed back: `When I was still a child, knowing nothing of all that is about us, was I not then more than now I am?'
`Man is a beggar when he thinks.' `When these men saw a spark of reason, they turned their backs like thieves.'

Attack on all that limits individual freedom (power, state)
`It is better to become as the bee and build one's house in innocence, than to rule with the masters of the world and howl with them as with wolves, than to dominate people.'
`You accord the state far too much power ... we will take its laws and whip them in the pillory. The state has always been made a hell by man's wanting to make it his heaven.'

Attack on science, industry, wealth accumulation
`Knowledge has corrupted everything.' `Barbarians whom industry and science and even religion made yet more barbarous.' `Men of necessity insensitive to all comely living.'

Illusions
This book is full of ecstatic childish cries about `endless love' (but his love dies), `the magical land of the Greek gods', `the terrifying splendor of Antiquity', `proud Rome' (Hölderlin quotes Plutarch, but the world described in Plutarch's books was indeed `terrifying' for the populations who lived in it), `the Eternal Beauty that is Nature' (but man is part of nature).

Freedom and peace
His highest goods are individual freedom and peace (`the golden age of innocence, the time of peace and freedom'). When one has enough means, one should `flee to some blessed valley to buy a pleasant house'.
Hyperion's trust in mankind is completely shattered when the Greek troops whom he leads against the Turks to give them a nation (also a very romantic goal), 'plundered, murdered, indiscriminately, even our brothers were killed.' Hyperion's reaction: `Be your own consolation'.

This book is a key text for the understanding of the Romantic Movement in Europe. Therefore, it is not to be missed. However, it doesn't attain the high standard of such romantic masterpieces as `Elective Affinities' by Goethe.