“I grew up in the arms of the gods.”

Friedrich Holderlin

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“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.”


“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.”


“For the mindful god does detest untimely growth.”


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


“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.”


“... 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!”