23 january 2025

23 january 2025

John Bjarne Grover

Friedrich Hölderlin:

Die Entschlafenen
Einen vergänglichen Tag lebt ich und wuchs mit den Meinen,
Eins ums andere schon schläft mir und fliehet dahin.
Doch ihr Schlafenden wacht am Herzen mir, in verwandter
Seele ruhet von euch mir das entfliehende Bild.
Und lebendiger lebt ihr dort, wo des göttlichen Geistes
Freude die Alternden all, alle die Toten verjüngt.
(Autumn 1800)

The deceased
In a posterior past lived I and grew up with my people,
the one and the other of you slept me and fled thitherto.
But you sleepers vigiled in my heart, in related
soul tarried you in me the vanishing image.
And more lively you live there where spirits divine
joy by the elder and all dead are rejuveniled.
(My translation)

Is this Hölderlin's conception of the ex nihilo 'magic' images? It is seen that the translation is full of 'errors', but it nevertheless seems to convey the essential mystery contained in Hölderlin's german poetry (which, by the way, also contains at least one such error - the form 'lebt' in the first line reflecting the same form in the 5th line) better than the following grammatically more appropriate translation onto which I corrected it later in the day:

The deceased (or: 'Those who have fallen asleep')
In an ephemeral time/day I lived and grew up with my people,
the one and the other of you would sleep me and flee to the end.
But you sleepers vigil in my heart and in the related
soul you tarry in me the picture that pales/flees (tries to escape).
And livelier live you there where by the divine spirit's
joy the ageing and all the dead are rejuvenated.

'Die Entschlafenen' means normally 'the deceased ones' but really 'those who have slept away' (or 'fallen asleep').

Sources:

Hölderlin, F.: Sämtliche Gedichte und Hyperion. Herausgegeben von Jochen Schmidt. Insel Verlag Frankfurt am Main und Leipzig 1999.

Hölderlin, F.: Die Entschlafenen - in 'Projekt Gutenberg'

	Die Entschlafenen Einen vergänglichen Tag lebt ich und wuchs mit den Meinen, Eins ums andere schon schläft mir und fliehet dahin. Doch ihr Schlafenden wacht am Herzen mir, in verwandter Seele ruhet von euch mir das entfliehende Bild. Und lebendiger lebt ihr dort, wo des göttlichen Geistes Freude die Alternden all, alle die Toten verjüngt. (Autumn 1800)
	The deceased In a posterior past lived I and grew up with my people, the one and the other of you slept me and fled thitherto. But you sleepers vigiled in my heart, in related soul tarried you in me the vanishing image. And more lively you live there where spirits divine joy by the elder and all dead are rejuveniled. (My translation)