100
Greek Interpretation of Human Beings [100-102]

Als Anfang aber jenes zu erjagen, unschicklich bleibt's, wogegen auszurichten nichts.


Yet to commence in pursuit or that remains unfitting, against which nothing can avail.


In order to clarify this word, we require a few pointers concerning the construction of the entire line, the likes of which we seek in vain in any other poetic work. At the emphatic beginning there stands ἀρχήν, and at the no less emphatic end of the line, τἀμήχανα.

τἀμήχανα: that against which nothing can avail, that which, therefore, itself remains something altogether of no avail. Such is that which is destined to us, destiny [das Zu-geschickte, das Geschick] and its essential ground. If we think the line in terms of its ending, then the adage says that it is not fitting [nicht schicklich] to make that which is of no avail into the all-determining commencement (origin) of all human being. Within the construction of the adage it is precisely this point, that it remains unfitting, which is placed between the essential words at the beginning and end, such that this being unfitting sustains the tension that arises in this line between what is unreconcilable: ἀρχή and τἀμήχανα. A German poet would have to be capable of saying this adage in its astonishing structural articulation. Our translation is merely an awkward stopgap, concerned solely with clarifying these words.


Als Anfang aber jenes zu erjagen, unschicklich bleibt's, wogegen auszurichten nichts.


Yet to commence in pursuit or that remains unfitting, against which nothing can avail.


In order merely to indicate the difficulty of providing a rendition, and its remoteness from the original word, we may cite Hölderlin's translation of this line:


Gleich Anfangs muß Niemand Unthunliches jagen.


Right at the commencement no one must pursue what cannot be done
(V. 191).


This translation fails to render what is essential, despite its poetic character. ἀρχή means that from which something proceeds, namely, such that that from which something proceeds is not left behind but determines and prevails in advance out beyond everything proceeding from it. ἀρχή means at once beginning, point of departure, origin, rule. Taken by itself, ἀρχή


Hölderlin’s Hymn “The Ister” (GA 53) by Martin Heidegger