Friedrich Hölderlin Quotes

Wo aber die Gefahr ist, wächst,
Das Rettende auch.
<blockquote>But where danger is,
salvation also blooms.</blockquote>

You have lost faith in anything great; you are doomed, then, doomed to perish unless that faith returns, like a comet from unknown skies.

... versprecht ihr mir, Ihr Wälder meiner Jugend, wenn ich komme, die Ruhe noch einmal wieder?

These fruits are ripe, dipped in fire,
Cooked and tested here on earth.

Hälfte des Lebens

Mit gelben Birnen hänget
Und voll mit wilden Rosen
Das Land in den See,
Ihr holden Schwäne,
Und trunken von Küssen
Tunkt ihr das Haupt
Ins heilignüchterne Wasser.

Weh mir, wo nehm’ ich, wenn
Es Winter ist, die Blumen, und wo
Den Sonnenschein,
Und Schatten der Erde?
Die Mauern stehn
Sprachlos und kalt, im Winde
Klirren die Fahnen.

La poesía es aquello que escapa de la historicidad, lo que no puede explicarse mediante un discurso histórico razonable y sin embargo mantiene su significado a través de la historia.

Eagles live in the darkness,
And the sons of the Alps
Cross over the abyss without fear
On lightly-built bridges.
***
Growing weak on the separate mountains — Then give us calm waters;
Give us wings, and loyal minds
To cross over and return.

I call on Fate to give me back my soul.

We are nothing; what we search for is everything.

Too long now things divine have been cheaply used
And all the power of heaven, the kindly, spent
In trifling waste by cold and cunning
Men without thanks, who when he, the Highest,

In person tills their field for them, think they know
the daylight and the Thunderer, and indeed
Their telescope may find them all, may
Count and may name every star of heaven.

Yet will the Father cover with holy night,
That we may last on earth, our too knowing eyes.
. . . Never will our
Free-ranging power coerce his heaven.

From “The Poet’s Vocation” (“Dichterberuf”)

He who has thought most deeply loves what is most alive.

Aber Freund! wir kommen zu spät. Zwar leben die Götter
Aber über dem Haupt droben in anderer Welt.

close and difficult to realize is the god, but where danger abounds, grows what saves.

Some are shy of going to the source
For riches begin in the sea.

Nah ist
Und schwer zu fassen der Gott.
Wo aber Gefahr ist, wächst
Das Rettende auch.