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Hyperion and Selected Poems

friedrich hölderlin eric l. santner willard r. trask michael hamburger christopher middleton

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English (translation)
Original German

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1797

This edition

Format
320 pages, Paperback
Published
August 1, 1990 by Continuum
ISBN
9780826403346
ASIN
0826403344
Language
English

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About the author

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friedrich hölderlin

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Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
yuzuleaf
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Nunca he leído y seguramente nunca leeré un texto más bello que este. Es la pura definición de lirismo a niveles fuera de toda escala. La poesía de este libro te hace tocar, en palabras de Hölderlin, el Éter azul.

Soy una persona diferente después de esta bomba.
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vampyrechic13
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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ای گرامی! زندگی بدون امید چیست؟ جرقه‌ای که از ذغالی می‌جهد و خاموش می‌شود. مثل این که تو در فصل دلگیر سال صدای وزش نسیمی بشنوی که یک آن جنبش می‌گیرد و باز از نفس می‌افتد.
آایا حکایت کار ما هم از همین قرار نیست؟
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Hikari_Daidoji
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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The Greeks and the Germans have a tense relationship at the present time, so it is good to be reminded that in the broader view there has always been a strong tradition of Hellenophilia amongst the Teutons. This book is an example. Hyperion is a Greek, looking back at his attempts to liberate his homeland from the Turkish yoke, and at the course of his love affair with Diotima. Neither of these main themes have a happy ending, but there is plenty of poetic pathos in the reflecting. There is also a real power, and wistful pleasure, in the descriptions of rustic retreat. It reminded me of how some years ago I was sailing in the Aegean with my parents, and we passed close to a small uninhabited island on which perched the ruins of an abandoned hermitage. I remarked to my father that part of me would like to spend my life in such a place; he agreed. (My mother thought us both insane).

This book is, in parts, moving and beautiful - but, sometimes, it doesn't quite ring true. The language, although poetic, is occasionally overblown; and the account of Hyperion's friend Alabanda is impossible to read nowadays without sniggering at its obvious homoeroticism - the joke being, of course, that it is only obvious to the contemporary reader (or so I'm told - though sometimes it's hard to believe). We are always aware of the multi layered nature of the text: Hyperion isn't really a Greek revolutionary, but a German Romantic's idea of what a Classical Greek would have been like if he was a 19th century Greek revolutionary....and of course our own viewpoint, post-Freud and post-20th century nationalism, interposes another prism...the effect of all this is to give a certain artificiality to the text...

And yet..Who has not suffered in love? Who has not felt the consolations of close, comradely friendships? Who is not moved by the beauties of the natural world? Who cannot feel the deep joy of rural seclusion, and the Taoist sense of detachment from a world enthralled to the stupid, the greedy, and the vulgar? Hyperion, c'est moi.

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amazoker
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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En litt krevende bok, var passasjer i den som var sublime, var passasjer der jeg klødde meg i hodebunnen med mitt kløhorn, men absolutt verdt å lese for det… VELDIG mange referanser til gresk mytologi her, kunne nesten trengt å ha Anne Helness på speed dial lol

Men noen veldig vakre passasjer som sagt. Bra bok!

Edit: etter å ha reflektert grundig over denne boken så har jeg nå blitt sinnsyk og innlosjert meg i et tårn i Tübingen, hvor jeg går frem og tilbake i rommet og konverserer med meg selv…
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FEgelmot
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Το έργο αυτό είναι πολλαπλώς σημαντικό. Καταρχάς πρόκειται για ένα επιστολικό μυθιστόρημα γραμμένο από έναν μεγάλο ποιητή. Η ποιητικότητα της γλώσσας ‘ξεχειλίζει’ κάθε φράση του κειμένου. Μετά είναι, όπως γράφει κι ο καθηγητής Βερτουδάκης στο πρόσφατο δοκίμιο που εξέδωσε για το έργο, το πιο ‘ελληνικό μυθιστόρημα’ που έχει γραφεί από Γερμανό! Είναι το έργο που μαζί με την Ιστορία της Αρχαίας Τέχνης του Βίνκελμαν και τον Φάουστ ΙΙ του Γκαίτε μετατόπισαν τους προβολείς από τον ρωμαϊκό στον αρχαίο ελληνικό πολιτισμό και οδήγησαν σε μια ‘εξαντλητική’ μελέτη του από τους Γερμανούς και τους Ευρωπαίους γενικότερα τους δυο επόμενους αιώνες. Ο Υπερίων στέκεται στα ερείπια των Αθηνών και αναλογίζεται, για πρώτη ίσως φορά στην ευρωπαϊκή λογοτεχνία/φιλοσοφία με τέτοια ενάργεια, γιατί ο πολιτισμός της αρχαίας Αθήνας ήταν τόσο σημαντικός, σε τι διαφέρει από αυτόν της Σπάρτης, αλλά και από αυτούς της Ανατολής και της Δύσης. Ο Χαίλντερλιν φωτίζει επίσης την προσωκρατική φιλοσοφία έχοντας σαν προμετωπίδα το ‘εν διαφέρον εαυτω’ του Ηρακλείτου. Η βασική του αρχή είναι η ‘μυστική’ ένωση του ανθρώπου με την Φύση και το Όλον. Την ίδια στιγμή το έργο αυτό θα εμπνεύσει τους Ευρωπαίους να ασχοληθούν με τον αγώνα για την απελευθέρωση της Ελλάδας από τον ζυγό της Οθωμανικής αυτοκρατορίας και θα ‘γεννήσει’ μορφές όπως ο Μπάιρον: ρομαντικοί, ποιητές, αλλά ταυτόχρονα έμπρακτοι αγωνιστές για το ιδεώδες της ελευθερίας. Τέτοια μορφή είναι κι ο Υπερίων. Ταυτόχρονα, ο ποιητής θα φωτίσει τον έρωτα με την αρχαιοελληνική έννοια-ας μην παραγνωρίζουμε ότι αυτό είναι ένα έντονα ερωτικό μυθιστόρημα-τόσο προς την Διοτίμα (όχι τυχαία επιλεγμένο το όνομα) όσο όμως και προς τον Αλαβάνδα, κατά το πρότυπο εραστή-ερώμενου.

Η μετάφραση του Λ. Γκέμερευ είναι εξαιρετική. Το ύφος του έργου εναρμονισμένο στα πρότυπα του ρομαντισμού της εποχής θα κουράσει, πιστεύω, σε κάποια σημεία τον σύγχρονο αναγνώστη με την ‘μεγαλοστομία’ του, ενώ προς το τέλος γίνεται έντονα κρυπτικό (ας μην ξεχνάμε ότι το έργο γράφηκε σε πολλές περιόδους και προς το τέλος του ο ποιητής βυθιζόταν στην παράνοια). Όπως και να έχει όμως, δεν υπάρχει καμμία αμφιβολία ότι η ανάγνωση ενός τέτοιου έργου είναι επιβεβλημένη!
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treeshrew
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A metà tra l'ideale della Grecia classica e la realtà storica vicina all'autore (la guerra russo-turca della seconda metà del Settecento), Iperione è composto per lo più dalle lettere di Iperione all'amico Bellarmino in cui descrive i propri pensieri e le proprie vicende: l'addio ad Adamas, il maestro, l'incontro con Alabanda, l'amico-amante, e la storia d'amore con Diotima, interrotta poi a causa della guerra.
Qua e là riflessioni sulla [ri]educazione dell'uomo, il contrasto tra la Grecia classica, ormai depredata dagli europei e composta da «barbari», e la Germania, un popolo «dilacerato» di «operai», uomini ammaestrati a servire il loro scopo, incapaci di sognare. La guerra russo-turca quindi diventa un'occasione per riscattare i greci, una guerra giusta e necessaria agli ideali di Iperione, per far sì che «natura e umanità si fondino in una sola divinità, nella quale tutto sarà contenuto».
Iperione è un romanzo influenzato molto dalla vita dell'autore e dai movimenti culturali a lui vicini: oltre la già citata riscoperta della Grecia classica, ci sono le idee di Schiller (il libero gioco e l'educazione al bello), il buon selvaggio di Rousseau e la relazione di Hölderlin con una donna sposata, Susette, nel libro nelle vesti di Diotima. Quando Schiller critica il primo volume perché troppo astratto, Iperione deve agire, deve essere attivo, e va in guerra; quando Susette deve interrompere la relazione con Hölderlin, la separazione tra Diotima e Iperione è inevitabile.
Iperione è uno di quei libri che non può essere letto e basta, va studiato con attenzione. A una lettura superficiale salta agli occhi uno stile pesante e pomposo, farcito di esempi pseudo lirici. Alla lettura più attenta lo stile si rivela per quello che è: poetico, caratterizzato da esempi più che adatti.
È obiettivamente apprezzabile, ma non lo consiglierei a cuor leggero, a meno che uno non sia interessato al periodo storico o alla letteratura tedesca o al libro in sé, ingiustamente interpretato da Hitler come anticipazione degli ideali del nazismo.
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brisingr123
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This review is going to be short, because there's not much to say about my experience with Hyperion by Friedrich Holderlin. I checked out this book from the library (thank goodness I didn't pay money for it) because it's on the ever-popular 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list.

I found it to be over-the-top and inadvertently funny in its melodrama and all the crazy emotional responses of the main character. I get that it's fitting with the genre of this novel, but it just wasn't to my taste. I can see its literary value and I probably would have enjoyed this much more if I had been reading it for a class and analyzing it for its themes and symbols. As a personal read, however, it just wasn't my style. I didn't at all like the main character and found the story itself slow and a little boring.
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