UriText

Menschen Beifall
Public Approval

Sechs Hölderlin Fragmente Six Hölderlin Fragments

Hölderlin

Has not my heart grown holy, filled with a better life
Since I do love? Why did you heed me more
When I was proud and wild,
Spoke many words, all empty?

Ah, people like what sells well in the market
And underlings respect but those with power.
Belief in godliness is
The sole province of the godly.

Die Heimat
Home

Sechs Hölderlin Fragmente Six Hölderlin Fragments

Hölderlin

Happy the boatman returns home to the quiet river
From far off islands where he took his harvest.
Well would I, too, like to come home;
Yet what have I ever reaped but sorrow?
River banks whose delights nurtured me,
Can you soothe love’s sorrow? And can you,
Forests of my childhood, when I arrive,
Restore to me that peace?

Sokrates und Alcibiades
Socrates and Alcibiades

Sechs Hölderlin Fragmente Six Hölderlin Fragments

Hölderlin

"Why do you, holy Socrates, so revere
This youth? Do you know nothing greater?
Why, as if on gods,
Does your eye rest lovingly on him?”

He who thinks most deeply loves what is most full of life,
Moral philosophy is understood by one who’s seen the world
And in the end, wise men
Incline, often, to Beauty.

Die Jugend
Youth

Sechs Hölderlin Fragmente Six Hölderlin Fragments

Hölderlin

When I was a boy
A god would rescue me
From scolding, beating people
And I played happily and safe
With the flowers of the field
While heavenly breezes
Played with me.
And as you delight
The hearts of flowers
When their gentle arms
Stretch out towards you,
So you, Father Helios,
Warmed my heart,
and I, like Endymion,
Sacred Luna, was your darling.
Ah, you faithful,
Friendly gods!
You should know
How much my soul did love you!
I grew up to the sound
Of whispering trees,
Learned love among the flowers
And grew to manhood in the arms of gods.

Hälfte des Lebens
In Mid-life

Sechs Hölderlin Fragmente Six Hölderlin Fragments

Hölderlin

Laden with yellow pears
And full of wild roses
The land dips down to the lake,
You noble swans,
And drunk with kisses
You dip your heads
Into the pure hallowed waters.
Where, oh where, when it is winter
Will I find the flowers and where
The sunshine and shadow of earth?
The walls stand
Speechless and cold, in the wind
The weather-vanes clatter.

Die Linien des Lebens
The Lines of Life

Sechs Hölderlin Fragmente Six Hölderlin Fragments

Hölderlin

The lines life follows are varied,
As are roads and the mountain’s border.
What we are here, a god there can perfect
With harmony, eternal peace and order.