224  ❦ ELUCIDATIONS OF HÖLDERLIN'S POETRY

PREFACE TO A READING OF HÖLDERLIN'S POEMS


Will we ever grasp this?

Hölderlins poetry is a destiny for us. It waits for the day when mortals will correspond to it.

What does Hölderlins poetry say? Its word is: the holy. This word speaks of the flight of the gods. It says that the gods who have fled protect us, until we are inclined and able to dwell in their nearness. To be a place of nearness characterizes the homeland. And so it remains necessary to prepare a sojourn in this nearness. Thus we accomplish the first step on a path which leads us to where we may correspond appropriately to the destiny which is Hölderlins poetry. Only thereby might we attain to the outer border of the place where "the God of gods" appears. For no human calculation and activity, in and of itself, can bring about a turn in the present world condition; one reason for this is the fact that the whole of mans activity has been stamped by this world condition and has come under its power. How then should he ever become master of it?

Hölderlin's poetry is a destiny for us. It waits for the day when mortals will correspond to it. Correspondence leads on the path of an entry into the nearness of the gods who have fled: the region of their flight will protect us.

Yet how are we to understand and retain all this? By listening to Hölderlins poetry.

Nevertheless, only a few poems can be spoken here. The few are limited to a selection. And this could be tinged with the appearance of arbitrariness. But that is alleviated somewhat if we willingly follow several key verses, taken from Hölderlin's poetry, and listen to them repeatedly.

The first key verse reads:


All is intimate

(Draft of "Form and Spirit," Stuttgarter Ausgabe II, 1, 321)


This means that one is appropriated to the other, but in such a way that thereby it itself remains in what is proper to it, or even first attains to it:


Elucidations of Hölderlin's Poetry (GA 4) by Martin Heidegger