Odes and Elegies

by Friedrich H lderlin, Nick Hoff (Translator)

Overview

Powerful translations of a seminal figure in modern poetry

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 blessèd 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"

For more than a century, Friedrich Hölderlin 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 Hölderlin'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 Hölderlin'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 blessèd 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"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819511904
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	11/22/2019
Series:	Wesleyan Poetry Series
Pages:	260
Sales rank:	1,102,077
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(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

From the Publisher

"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."—Werner Herzog

"Hoff's version of the odes and elegies of Holderlin is worthy of comparison to Richard Sieburth's parallel but not competing volume. At every point, Hoff finds extraordinary ways of conveying the astonishing force of Hölderlin's work."—Harold Bloom

"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."—Keith Waldrop, translator of Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil

"His influence on me is great and generous, as only that of the richest and most inwardly powerful can be."—Rainer Maria Rilke

""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.""—Werner Herzog, director of Rescue Dawn

"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."—Keith Waldrop, translator of Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil

Editorial Reviews

"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."—Werner Herzog

"Hoff's version of the odes and elegies of Holderlin is worthy of comparison to Richard Sieburth's parallel but not competing volume. At every point, Hoff finds extraordinary ways of conveying the astonishing force of Hölderlin's work."—Harold Bloom

"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."—Keith Waldrop, translator of Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil

"His influence on me is great and generous, as only that of the richest and most inwardly powerful can be."—Rainer Maria Rilke

""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.""—Werner Herzog, director of Rescue Dawn

"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."—Keith Waldrop, translator of Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil

From the Publisher