Selected Poems and Fragments

Michael Hamburger's distinguished translation of a selection of poems by German poet Friedrich Holderlin

As well as his poems on classical themes, the German poet Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843) is author of the novel HYPERION. Michael Hamburger was born in Berlin in 1924. His family emigrated to England in 1933. His own collections of poetry include FLOWERING CACTUS, WEATHER AND SEASON and OWNERLESS EARTH: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, and his many distinguished translations include versions of Hofmannsthal and Grass, as well as the POEMS AND FRAGMENTS, on which he worked for many years.

Friedrich H&ouml;lderlin (1770-1843) is now recognized as one of Europe&rsquo;s supreme poets. He first found his true voice in the epigrams and odes he wrote when transfigured by his love for the wife of a rich banker. He later embarked on an extraordinarily ambitious sequence of hymns exploring cosmology and history, from mythological times to the discovery of America and his own era. The &rsquo;Canticles of Night&rsquo;, by contrast, include enigmatic fragments in an unprecedented style, which anticipates the Symbolists and Surrealists. Together the works collected here show H&ouml;lderlin&rsquo;s use of Classical and Christian imagery and his exploration of cosmology and history in an attempt to find meaning in an uncertain world.

Friedrich Hölderlin

Jeremy Adler

Charlie Louth

One of Germany's greatest poets, Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) was also a prose writer of intense feeling, intelligence and perception. This new translation of selected letters and essays traces the life and thoughts of this extraordinary writer. Hölderlin's letters to friends and fellow writers such as Hegel, Schiller and Goethe describe his development as a poet, while those written to his family speak with great passion of his beliefs and aspirations, as well as revealing money worries and, finally, the tragic unravelling of his sanity. These works examine Hölderlin's great preoccupations - the unity of existence, the relationship between art and nature and, above all, the spirit of the writer.

Friedrich Hölderlin

Books by Friedrich Hölderlin

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