Friedrich Holderlin

“Hield mij aan't leven der mensen dit hart maar niet meer gebonden,dat van liefde niet aflaat, hoe graag zou ik mét u hier wonen!”

“For the mindful god does detest untimely growth.”

“But where the danger is, also grows the saving power.”

“For our generation walks as in Hades, without the divine.”

“I grew up in the arms of the gods.”

“Ja, vergiß nur, daß es Menschen gibt, darbendes, angefochtenes, tausendfach geärgertes Herz! und kehre wieder dahin, wo du ausgingst, in die Arme der Natur, der wandellosen, stillen und schönen.”

“Man kann auch in die Höhe fallen, so wie in die Tiefe.”

“when i was a boya god often rescued mefrom the shouts and the rods of menand i played among trees and flowerssecure in their kindnessand the breezes of heavenwere playing there too.and as you delightthe hearts of plantswhen they stretch towards youwith little strengthso you delighted the heart in mefather Helios, and like Endymioni was your favourite,Moon. o allyou friendlyand faithful godsi wish you could knowhow my soul has loved you.even though when i called to you thenit was not yet with names, and younever named me as people doas though they knew one anotheri knew you betterthan i have ever known them.i understood the stillness above the skybut never the words of men.trees were my teachersmelodious treesand i learned to loveamong flowers.i grew up in the arms of the gods.”

“... ich kann kein Volk mir denken, das zerißner wäre, wie die Deutschen. Handwerker siehst du, aber keine Menschen, Priester, aber keine Menschen, Herrn und Knechte, Jungenudn gesetzte Leute, aber keine Menschen - ist das nicht wie ein Schlachtfeld, wo Hände und Arme und Gleider zerstückelt untereinander liegen ... ? Ein jeder treibt das Seine, wirst du sagen, und ich sage es auch. Nur muß er es mit ganzer Seele treiben, muß nicht jede Kraft in sich ersticken, wenn sie nicht gerade sich zu seinem Titel paßt ... und ist er in ein Fach gedrückt, wo gar der Geist nicht leben darf, so stoß ers mit Verachtung weg und lerne pflügen!”

“Alles prüfe der Mensch,dass er Danken für alles lerntund verstehe die Freiheit,aufzubrechen, wohin er will.”

“You have a head and a heart? Reveal only one of them, I say; If you reveal both at once, doubly they'll damn you, for both.”

“Holy spirits, you walk up there in the light, on soft earth. Shining god-like breezes touch upon you gently, as a woman's fingers play music on holy strings.Like sleeping infants the gods breathe without any plan; the spirit flourishes continually in them, chastely kept, as in a small bud, and their holy eyes look out in still eternal clearness.A place to rest isn't given to us. Suffering humans decline and blindly fall from one hour to the next, like water thrown from cliff to cliff, year after year, down into the Unknown.”

“All the fruit is ripe, plunged in fire, cooked,And they have passed their test on earth, and one law is this:That everything curls inward, like snakes,Prophetic, dreaming onThe hills of heaven. And many thingsHave to stay on the shoulders like a loadof failure. However the roadsAre bad. For the chained elements,Like horses, are going off to the side,And the oldLaws of the earth. And a longingFor disintegration constantly comes. Many things howeverHave to stay on the shoulders. Steadiness is essential.Forwards, however, or backwards we willNot look. Let us learn to live swayingAs in a rocking boat on the sea.”

“Ein Gott ist der Mensch, wenn er träumt, ein Bettler, wenn er nachdenkt.”

“Near and hard to graspIs the God. But where danger isDeliverance also grows”