Odes and Elegies

by Friedrich Hölderlin, Nick Hoff (Translation)

Powerful translations of a seminal figure in modern poetry

For more than a century, Friedrich H�lderlin has been considered one of the key figures in modern European literature. The translations in Odes and Elegies, including poems never before available in English, render forcefully and directly the deep longing and heartbreak of H�lderlin's poetic world. A bilingual edition, this book is the first major translation of these poems since the 1960s. Odes and Elegies opens to the English reader the unique poetic voice that marks H�lderlin's achievement and continuing influence on poetry and philosophy today.

Sample Poem:

Gladly the boatman turns home to the river's calm
From his harvest on faraway isles;
If only I too were homeward bound;
Yet what harvest have I but sorrow?--

O bless�d riverbanks that raised me,
Can you ease the sorrows of love? Ah, when I come
To you, woods of my youth, will you
Grant me peace once again?
--From "Home"

Genres: Poetry, German Literature, Germany

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

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

[natalianacar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qué bonito, por favor. Desearía tantísimo ser capaz de escribir la primavera y el recuerdo… menos mal que puedo leerlos, tan claros, tan amables, cada página me hacía sentirme como tendida sobre la hierba, ay, ay

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin exerts an influence like the pull of a giant wayward star. So strong has been its allure that one feels compelled to ask exactly why Hölderlin's work captivates to this day so many major poets and philosophers. What is it about this poet who wrote over two hundred years ago...that speaks with such tremendous force to us today? The answer, I think, lies in Hölderlin's experience of modernity. For Hölderlin's is one of the first—and deepest—experiences that is, in its essence, our own.

As Hölderlin wrote in "The Poet's Calling," we live in a world in which "everything divine" has been "utilized" for too long, and "all the heavenly powers thrown away." We think we can grasp the world, that we can "name all the stars in heaven," but we have lost our way to the divine."

This absence of the sacred, this deep sense of loss that underlies the unease of modern Western culture...has only intensified in the two hundred years since "The Poet's Calling" was written. Hölderlin speaks so strongly to us today because his poetry is grounded in a profound experience of this absence, of the break in tradition that in many ways defines our times."

[JJS. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holderin is often considered among the greatest German poets. I can't read German, so I can't really judge. However, Nick Noff's translation has convinced me that this is the case.

[ninon · Rating 2 out of 5]

décevant .. la poésie française a gagne mon coeur

[Alex Compton · Rating 5 out of 5]

makes me want to swim nude at barton

[Randy]

Harold Bloom thinks it's a fabulous translation.