Los poemas recogidos en este volumen de Odas , abarcan seis años de 1796 a 1802. Son años claves en su trayectoria, pues en ellos conoce y se enamora de su Diotima, ve publicado su Hiperión , debe abandonar Francfort y a su amada, fracasa en sus proyectos como editor de una revista literaria, viaja a Suiza y a Francia, manifiesta los primeros síntomas de su enfermedad y acaba conociendo la muerte de Susette y refugiándose en casa de su madre en Nürtingen. Son años en que trabaja febrilmente en sus poemas, revisándolos y reescribiéndolos constantemente, y en que se alternan la composición de elegías, cantos, y odas, que han sido seleccionadas por Txaro Santoro para su trabajo de edición y traducción.
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.
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
"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."
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.