Hyperion and Selected Poems

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.

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.

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.