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Bibliotherapy

Hermann Hesse-Ode To Hölderlin

FK Hiemer-Friedrich Hölderlin-Pastell-1792

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Today’s sharing from the Blue House of HYGEIA, is a poem by Hermann Hesse, dedicated to Hölderlin. Translated into English by HYGEIA (Nalan and Nicolas) from the original German and from the French translation by Jean Malaplate for the ‘Selected poems of Hermann Hesse’ French edition published by Editions Jose Corti, 1994.

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English Translation

Many evenings, at this hour when the lilacs of the slumbering garden guard the whisper of the fountain, I remember you, my dear childhood friend, overwhelmed with gratitude.

Nobody knows you anymore, O Friend, our time is distant from Greece, from her peaceful charms; without prayer and gods, a disenchanted people tread a colorless dust.

But for the secret crowd, those who, deep in the secret of their hearts God struck the soul with a fiery desire, for them, still resonate today the music of your divine harp.

Passionately, we turn ourselves, weary of the day, towards the ambrosian night of your songs whose wing- flap shelter us with their golden dream.

Alas, and under the charm of your voice, burns, ardently painful, the regret of the blissful abode of yesteryear, of the temples of Greece, our eternal nostalgy for home.

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Original German

French Translation

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More about Hölderlin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hölderlin 🌿 More about Hermann Hesse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Hesse
Hermann Hesse-Ode To Hölderlin

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