Poetry Books
Hymns to the Night
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Manufacturer: McPherson
Author: Novalis
Publisher: McPherson
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $6.50
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: McPherson
Author: Novalis
Publisher: McPherson
Average Customer Rating:
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Hymns to the Night Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 831.6
EAN: 9780914232902
ISBN: 0914232908
Label: McPherson
Manufacturer: McPherson
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 55
Publication Date: 1988-01-01
Publisher: McPherson
Studio: McPherson
Dewey Decimal Number: 831.6
EAN: 9780914232902
ISBN: 0914232908
Label: McPherson
Manufacturer: McPherson
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 55
Publication Date: 1988-01-01
Publisher: McPherson
Studio: McPherson
Editorial Review of Hymns to the Night
This bilingual, revised, third edition of Dick Higgins' popular translation presents the complete Athenaum version of Frederich von Hardenburgh's classic romantic long poem, and the substantially different manuscript version of the first section. The German text is en face. The six hymns comprise a deeply affecting poem that speaks across the centuries with unquestioned radiance.
Customer Reviews of Hymns to the Night
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Brilliant Poems; Dreadful Translation
Review: Five stars for the *Hymns*; zero stars for the (mis)translation
Novalis's *Hymns to the Night* are a true gem of late 18th-Century Romantic poetry. A brilliant and original mingling of prose-poetry and verse, the *Hymns* celebrate night, darkness, and death as bearers of tremendous revelation. They do so in supple, elegant, and sensuous language filled with yearning for a deeper reality than that which gaudy daylight reveals. Particularly notable is the erotic dimension of this Romantic yearning, or *Sehnsucht*, that Novalis daringly offers the reader.
Given the above, one can only react with disgust at Dick Higgins's vulgar travesty of the *Hymns*. His specious and, not to put too fine a point on it, idiotic rationalization for butchering this work is that Novalis's language was modern for its time; therefore, to preserve that flavor, it should be rendered into the modern "poetic" idiom of, say, William Carlos Williams and other banal writers of simple prose disguised as poetry by dividing it into lines and pseudo-stanzas. Higgins has simplified Novalis to the point of idiocy.
Those English-speaking readers who wish to read the *Hymns* as Novalis wrote them should consult the Charles Passage and George Macdonald translations. They are hardly perfect, but, unlike Higgin's's misbegotten manglings, they represent Novalis's magnificent *Hymns* with at least a modicum of their original dignity intact. It would be wonderful to have a competent and faithful contemporary translation of the *Hymns*. Higgin's translation, however, is not that work. *Caveat lector*.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Poetry and Philosophy
Review: The German culture can be said to oscillate between two extremes. The first is the predisposition to obsessively systematize and classify life's experience into knowledge with a calm and indifferent demeanor. The second is the reverse tendency to discard the rational and dive off into the realm of the fantastic and the perverse, the moody and the emotionally erratic. Novalis presents a fascinating case study in paradoxically representing both of the tendencies. His "Hymns to the Night" are filled with despair, longing, and a visionary quality that sort of puts one into a trance when reading. However hidden beneath this highly charged emotional atmosphere are layers of allegory and thought. Hence what we have here is that unique poem which combines a very human story of loss, sorrow, and grief with intriguing philosophical meditations on love, [end of life], religion, resurrection, and the relation of mind and body. Much more could be said and should be said. But additional details would spoil the joy of discovering the beauty of the poem on your own....
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: One of the pioneers
Review: Novalis can be seen as one of the very first German poets who abandoned the classic German way of writing. "Hymns to the night" in particular is a collection of poems characterised by a mysterious dark lyricism and an accult atmosphere, blended in a way that cannot possibly provoke, annoy or "puzzle" ANY reader. On the contrary, Novalis' unique way of writing sounds like ones' beautiful ancient prayer to ones' ancient Gods
Review Summary: Brilliant Poems; Dreadful Translation
Review: Five stars for the *Hymns*; zero stars for the (mis)translation
Novalis's *Hymns to the Night* are a true gem of late 18th-Century Romantic poetry. A brilliant and original mingling of prose-poetry and verse, the *Hymns* celebrate night, darkness, and death as bearers of tremendous revelation. They do so in supple, elegant, and sensuous language filled with yearning for a deeper reality than that which gaudy daylight reveals. Particularly notable is the erotic dimension of this Romantic yearning, or *Sehnsucht*, that Novalis daringly offers the reader.
Given the above, one can only react with disgust at Dick Higgins's vulgar travesty of the *Hymns*. His specious and, not to put too fine a point on it, idiotic rationalization for butchering this work is that Novalis's language was modern for its time; therefore, to preserve that flavor, it should be rendered into the modern "poetic" idiom of, say, William Carlos Williams and other banal writers of simple prose disguised as poetry by dividing it into lines and pseudo-stanzas. Higgins has simplified Novalis to the point of idiocy.
Those English-speaking readers who wish to read the *Hymns* as Novalis wrote them should consult the Charles Passage and George Macdonald translations. They are hardly perfect, but, unlike Higgin's's misbegotten manglings, they represent Novalis's magnificent *Hymns* with at least a modicum of their original dignity intact. It would be wonderful to have a competent and faithful contemporary translation of the *Hymns*. Higgin's translation, however, is not that work. *Caveat lector*.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Poetry and Philosophy
Review: The German culture can be said to oscillate between two extremes. The first is the predisposition to obsessively systematize and classify life's experience into knowledge with a calm and indifferent demeanor. The second is the reverse tendency to discard the rational and dive off into the realm of the fantastic and the perverse, the moody and the emotionally erratic. Novalis presents a fascinating case study in paradoxically representing both of the tendencies. His "Hymns to the Night" are filled with despair, longing, and a visionary quality that sort of puts one into a trance when reading. However hidden beneath this highly charged emotional atmosphere are layers of allegory and thought. Hence what we have here is that unique poem which combines a very human story of loss, sorrow, and grief with intriguing philosophical meditations on love, [end of life], religion, resurrection, and the relation of mind and body. Much more could be said and should be said. But additional details would spoil the joy of discovering the beauty of the poem on your own....
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: One of the pioneers
Review: Novalis can be seen as one of the very first German poets who abandoned the classic German way of writing. "Hymns to the night" in particular is a collection of poems characterised by a mysterious dark lyricism and an accult atmosphere, blended in a way that cannot possibly provoke, annoy or "puzzle" ANY reader. On the contrary, Novalis' unique way of writing sounds like ones' beautiful ancient prayer to ones' ancient Gods