Friedrich Holderlin (VI of VI)
Why the German poet Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843)? What do I love about Holderlin? His lyrical expressiveness, for sure. His spirituality. The way he reached across millennia of human history and culture for what was most inspirational. And how he and his friend Wilhelm Hegel, in their twenties, put together a new worldview — German Idealism — that made the most sense that could have been made in the 1790s out of Deity and the Divine, the Field (“Infinity”), the soul, and consciousness.
In the final scene of the play about him inside my novel We Are Like Fire, Holderlin emerges temporarily from his madness and recites to his audience:
At last once again, there breathes a song from an unburdened heart
Just as once, when I was filled with life
I stood on a sun-illumined hilltop
And Deity spoke from inside a temple
Yes, I will live again! Things now ripen!
And as from a sacred harp
Deity calls, echoed from silvery peaks
Come! It was all like a dream!
My bleeding wings are now truly healed
And all my hopes leap up to live again
Oh, remain and accompany us
You sacred visions
You hours of communion
You true inspirations
You reverent sentiments
You, our most earnest youth
And all you kindly spirits
Who are just glad to be near those who are in love
Linger with us, linger till at length
Upon common ground, reunited
There, where the celestial ones are
The blessed heralds who prepare to visit us again
There, where the Muses sing and the eagles soar
And where heroes and lovers reside
There will we meet again
And here as well, on some temperate island
Where for once what is ours will be gathered in gardens
Where all the old best stories will turn true
And Springtime remain beautiful longer
Here in this place, in this moment, we will begin again
To renew the life of our souls