"Patmos": The Senses of Interpretation Author(s): Andrzej Warminski Source: MLN, Vol. 91, No. 3, German Issue (Apr.

, 1976), pp. 478-500 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2907173 Accessed: 05/10/2010 15:23
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TERPRETATION MINSKI `

. ATMOS":

THE

SENSES

ANDRZEJ

OF

WAR-

IN-

AuffallendmuBtees aber dabei sein, daB eine Sprache dazu gekommen ist, ein und dasselbe Wort fur zwei entgegengesetzte Bestimmungenzu gebrauchen. Fur das spekulative Denken ist es erfreulich,in der Sprache Worter zu finden,welche eine spekulative Bedeutung an ihnen selbsthaben; die deutsche Sprache hat mehrere dergleichen. G. W. F. Hegel, Wissenschaft derLogik' 'Sinn' namlich ist dies wunderbare Wort,welches selber in zwei entgegengesetztenBedeutungen gebrauchtwird. Einmal bezeichnetes die Organe der unmittelbarenAuffassung,das andere Mal aber heiBenwirSinn: die Bedeutung, den Gedanken, das Allgemeineder Sache. Und so bezieht sich der Sinn einerseitsauf das unmittelbar Ausserlicheder Existenz,andererseitsauf das innere Wesen derselben.

G. W. F. Hegel, Vorlesungen iiberdie Asthetik2

Holderlin's "Patmos" lends itself readily to being treated as a religious document or a profession of faith. Interpreters of the poem have been particularly resourceful in tracing its many Biblical themes and allusions.3 In a recent essay P. H. Gaskill sees "Patmos" as Holderlin's closest approximation of the spirit of pietism.4
G. W. F. Hegel, Wissenschaft derLogikI (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, of the entire remark concerningaufheben see 1969). p. 114. For an interpretation (Paris: Editions Galilee, 1973). Jean-Luc Nancy,La remarque speculative 2 G. W. F. I (Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp iiberdie Asthetik Hegel, Vorlesungen of the problemof Sinn in Hegel see the Verlag, 1970), p. 173. For an interpretation (Paris: Presses Unichapter "Sens et sensible"in Jean Hyppolite,Logiqueetexistence versitaires de France, 1953), pp. 27-45. 3 See: Arthur 24 (1945), 701Hany, "Holderlin: Patmos," Schweizer Monatshefte, 724; Robert L. Beare, "Patmos, dem Landgrafen von Homburg," The Germanic Review, 28 (1953), 5-22; Alice Gladstone, "Holderlin's 'Patmos': Voyage as Reviewof Literature, 10 (1959), 64-76; Wolfgang Binder, Homecoming," Quarterly in Holderlin-Aufsdtze "Holderlin's Patmos-Hymne," am Main: Insel Ver(Frankfurt 1970), pp. 362-402. lag, 4 P. H. Gaskill,"Holderlin's Contact with Pietism,"The ModernLanguage Review, 69 (1974), 805-820. Especially p. 809: "Certainly,the final verses of'Patmos' seem close to the spiritof Bengel and Swabian biblicism";and p. 819: "It is in 'Patmos' MLN 91 (1976) 478-500 ? 1976 byTheJohns Press Copyright Hopkins University Allrights inanyform ofreproduction reserved.

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But the determinedeffort to discover Christiandoctrinein or behind the words of the poem has facilitatedthe covering of the poem's inconsistenciesunder the convenient labels of "mystery" and "paradox." Whether secular or religious, the interpreteris like: "A secret... to grasp the repeatedlyforcedinto formulations God in the human word," "the magical properties of language," and "the divine power of the word."5This simultaneous recognition and magical dismissal of the poem's difficultiesresults in overlyhastyoppositions and analogies between poetryand Scriptureon theone hand and poetryand philosophyon the other.6The of each disappears under an assumed likenessor unlikespecificity ness. This reduction is characteristicof interpretationsof the dialogue between Holderlin and philosophers, and it is not confined to Heidegger's readings of Holderlin which have caused some justified(if not alwayswell-articulated) uneasinessamong critics.7 Interpreters of the relationshipbetween Holderlin and Hegel

above all that Holderlin in my view comes closest to the world of Bengel and the 'Schwabenviter.'" 5 The quotations are from Hany (p. 702), Beare (p. 18), and Gladstone (p. 74) respectively. 6 See falls like lightningfrom the Gladstone, pp. 74-76: "Strengthstill-glowing fromthe Revelationof the exiled John. And fromall great poetry... 'holywriting,' the poem fulfillsits own prayer, stands witnessto the response of the muse. In of song,' in the makingof a great poem, the God is seized 'the staff graspingfirmly of stropheseleven and twelve,p. 389: "Die and held."; or Binder's interpretation Dichtung darf von Christuserzahlen, aber sie hat ihn nichtzu verkiindigen;denn Dichtung ist nichtPredigt... Es geht, miteinem Wort,um die Hybrisdes Idealismus" and p. 399: "Das scheintparadox gesagt,aber Hegels Geschichtsphilosophie, die wie Holderlins Dichtung im Medium des schwabischenPietismuswurzelt,folgt ahnlichen Denkprinzipien." Even Adorno cannot resist making an overly neat summaryof the relationbetweenHolderlin and Hegel in theirview of Christianity. III T. W. Adorno, "Parataxis, zur spaten Lyrik Holderlins," in Notenzur Literatur (Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1965), p. 203: "sakularisierteHegel das Christentumzur Idee, so siedelte Holderlin es zuruck in die mythische Opferreligion." 7 For discussions generallycriticalof Heidegger see Adorno, "Parataxis," and: und die Dichtung(Stuttgart:1953); Paul de Man, "Les Else Buddeberg, Heidegger exegses de Holderlin par Martin Heidegger," Critique,100/101 (1955), 800-819; Peter Szondi, "Der andere Pfeil," in Holderlin-Studien(Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970), pp. 37-61. Some discussions generally favorable to Heidegger are: Maurice Blanchot,"La parole sacree de H6lderlin,"in La partdufeu (Paris: Gallimard, 1949), pp. 115-132; Beda Allemann, Holderlinund Heidegger (Zurich und Freiburg im Breisgau: AtlantisVerlag, 1954); and Karsten Harries, 54, No. 1 "Heidegger and Holderlin: The Limits of Language," The Personalist, (1963), 5-23.

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value extollone at the expense of the other and implicitly explicitly is effort the versa.8 vice Since or literatureover philosophy always to demonstratethe discourse of one reducible to thatof the other, Holderlin has fared less well than Hegel-the author of the most subsuming discourse of all time-especially in regard to the poetof the two thinkershas already proved ry.9Yet the rapprochement for an understanding of Holderlin's theoreticalwritings fruitful and thiswould indicate thata rigorousinterpretation and letters,10 of the relationshipbetween Holderlin and Hegel may be the best route of access to Holderlin. As such, it remains a route to be opened. This essay cannot lay claim to such a project;1 it does not Rather it is a even attempt to read "Patmos" in its "entirety."12 and late the of Holderlin a toward: 1) (re)reading preliminary essay and Holderlin between of the a 2) genuine dialogue (re)opening Hegel.
in die Metaphysik See Martin Heidegger, Einfiihrung (Tiubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1966), p. 96: "So stehen die beiden Freunde Hegel und Holderlinin ihrer Bann Heraklits,aber mitdem Unterschied,daB Weise im groBen und fruchtbaren blicktund abschlieBt,Holderlin nach vorwirtsschaut und Hegel nach riickwarts aufschlieBt." For what sounds like a replyto Heidegger's assertionsee: Dieter Henrich, "Hegel und H6lderlin," in Hegel im Kontext (Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1967), p. 34:
8

Auchin HegelsDenkenistdas Motiv der Erinnerung als die Verwesentlich,-jedoch derGestalten aus ihrer au3erlichen Existenz indas Innere des begreifenden sammlung Geistes.Ihm ist Erinnern immer ein Verwandeln,-Er-Innerung als Uberholen des An-sich-seins des Vergangenen,-eine neueWeise, es zu setzen als zugehorig demerinIchoderdemAllgemeinen derIntelligenz. nernden Holderlin istdas Erinnern dagegen einBewahren, derForderung inseinem das unter derTreuesteht, alsodas Vergangene ihn es in halt. Fur sucht und keinen freien die derdas Zukunft, Eigenen Ausgriff gibt LebennurvonsichstoBt, statt es war,-alsden es-und die,derenSchicksal vergangene zumEigenen fortleben und wirken zu lassen. erinnernd Gegensatz 9 For a reading of Holderlin fromthe Hegelian point of view see: Leonardus van de Velde, Herrschaft und Knechtschaft bei Holderlin(Assen: Van Gorcum, 1973). Alof Holderlin's theoreticalwritings are most helpful,van though his interpretations de Velde's attemptto reduce individual poems to problems solved by dialectical and (as van de Velde admits) cannot do away with the mediation is less satisfying of the late lyrics. difficulties 10Peter Szondi's interpretation of Holderlin's dialectic is the best example: Peter Szondi, "Uberwindung des Klassizismus,"in Holderlin-Studien, pp. 95-118. 1 It would entaila rigorousdiscussionof the relationbetweenthe literary textand the philosophical text. Most of Jacques Derrida's work is concerned withthe problem, but see especially:Jacques Derrida, "La mythologie blanche," in Marges(Paris: Editions de Minuit,1972), pp. 247-324. Also, see Paul de Man, "Nietzsche'sTheory of Rhetoric,"Symposium, 28, No. 1 (1974), 33-51. 12 What does it mean to read "in its a poem whichwas re-workedseveral entirety" times and which does not exist in any "final" form?For that matter,what does it mean to read "all" of any poem?

M L N I Zu lang, zu lang schon ist Die Ehre der Himmlischenunsichtbar. Denn fastdie Finger mfissensie Uns fuihren and schmahlich EntreiBtdas Herz uns eine Gewalt. Denn Opfer will der Himmlischen jedes, Wenn aber eines versaumtward, Nie hat es Gutes gebracht. Wir haben gedienet der MutterErd' Und haben jungst dem Sonnenlichtegedient, Unwissend, der Vater aber liebt, Der uber allen waltet, Am meisten,daB gepflegetwerde Der veste Buchstab, und bestehendes gut Gedeutet. Dem folgtdeutscher Gesang.

481

(2:1, 171-2)13

Usually supposed to state the poem's answers, strophe fifteencan serve to pose the right questions. The poem ends with a hopeful affirmation of the poet's role in a time of need: German song observes the care of the solid letter and the interpretation of the existing. This two-sided activityofpflegen and deuten is presented as a contrast to the activity of serving Mutter Erd' and Sonnenlicht: whereas the relation of the strophe's "we" to these latter is described by the one, repeated verb dienen, two different verbs are used to describe the desired care and interpretation of Buchstab and bestehendes. Since the former activity is unknowing (unwissend), the from the identity of dienen to the difference ofpflegen and passage deuten is one from ignorance to knowledge. Yet the relation of pflegen to deuten is not one of mere difference. That the two activities are simultaneously one activity is suggested by the "und" which links them and by German song's relation to them: "Dem folgt deutscher Gesang" is best understood as German song's observing simultaneous care and interpretation. The passage from unknowing, one-sided serving of Mother Earth and the sunlight to knowing service of the one Father who reigns over all is a movement from mere identity (or mere difference in the case of earth and sunlight) to the identity of identity and difference. Yet such an identity is necessarily problematic, and its articula13 All page references are to the big Stuttgartedition, Friedrich Holderlin, Sdmtliche ed. FriedrichBeissner (Stuttgart:Cotta, 1943 ff.)and are given by Werke, volume and page number.

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With each word, the diftion cannot help but betrayits difficulty. threatens to slide into radical and deuten ference betweenpflegen "veste Buchstab" (thatof for the (unsublatable) disjunction.Caring unlike dienen whichcalls for an not Holy Scripture)suggests activity Good interpretationof "bestesubmission and self-effacement. the on other hand, requires considerably more selfhendes," assertion. The verb deutenhas several meanings: to interpret,to to announce or pointout or indicate,to bringthe good into light,14 to the solid letter Unlike the blind submission impliedby prophesy. all of these meanings require knowledgeable participation pflegen, on the part of the subject, and the object of "gedeutet" supports such a reading: like the fluid meaning of deuten,"bestehendes" which has come could suggest somethingthat was in movement,15 as the word's grammatical to a halt, perhaps only momentarily, status-nominalized present participle-would indicate. The danto the and deutenare clear: to submitslavishly gers of bothpflegen the spirit-Grimm: "nachdembuchstalettermay be to misinterpret ben nehmen, fassen geht auf strenge, wortliche,den rechten sinn "beversaumende erklarung"16-and to bring to lightor interpret An additionalmeanstehendes"maybe to positmeaningarbitrarily. appropriate way: ing of deutenfocuses the problem in a strikingly "da aber ze diutein der redensartze diutesagen, reden nichtblosz heiszt,zumal im gegensatz zu deutlich, sondern haufig zu deutsch der lateinischen kirchensprache ... deutenware so viel als dem If to volk, den Deutschen verstandlichmachen, verdeutschen."17 it make to Geris also to understandable "bestehendes" interpret mans, then the task of "deutscher Gesang" is translation:the suppressionof the letterand its preservationin spirit.But in order for to be possible the "veste Buchstab" cannot be regarded translation
Deutsches 14See "deuten" in Jakob Grimmand WilhelmGrimm, Wirterbuch (Leipzig: 1860), II, p. 1038: "heisztes ursprunglichklar,hell machen, ins lichtsetzen,das gute hervorheben." 15 See "bestehen" in Grimm, (Leipzig: 1854), I, p. 1666: "von flussigendingen gebraucht,stocken,gerinnen, zu rinnen aufhoren." Although the verb's implicasetzte ruhe voraus, tions depend upon its use-Grimm, p. 1670: "das intransitive das transitivebewegung"-its etymology suggests halted movement. See Keith Dictionary ofGerman Figurative Usage (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Spalding,An Historical 1956), fasc. 7, p. 283: "'standing firm,''standing still,''coagulating, congealing,' 'stopping'withref.to liquids, limbs,tools,mechanismsformthe phys.beginningsof bestehen." 16 See "Buchstab" in Grimm, II, p. 481. 17 See "deuten" in Grimm, II, p. 1038.

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as toosolid-i.e., inseparable fromits meaning-or disregarded as accidental: the translationmust be simultaneouslysecondary and original. to follow,physically The dilemma is contained in the verbfolgen: German song's following or intellectually. Understood "literally," would mean its necessarybelatedness in relationto the solid letter, its unavoidable secondariness.Understood "figuratively," following would mean German song's contemporaneity in spirit, its The formerkind of following, however, "Gleichurspriinglichkeit." would be unknowing,even blind, as the thirdand fourthlines of the stropheindicate: "Denn fastdie Finger miissensie unsfiihren." is the faithof the doubtingThomas. The figurative Such following on the other hand, would be exposed to the dangers of following, the willful deuten, positingof meaning, and this may be the power line: "und schmahlichentreiBt referred to in the fifth ("Gewalt") das Herz uns eine Gewalt." "Der Einzige" (erste Fassung),the hymn as closestto "Patmos" in mostrespects,expresses a similardifficulty well as the hope for its resolution: Diesesmal Ist nemlich vomeigenenHerzen Zu sehrgegangen der Gesang, willichden Fehl, Gutmachen Wennich nochanderesinge. Nie treff ich,wie ichwunsche, Das Maas.

(2:1, 155)

These lines suggestanother possible meaning of"und schmahlich/ EntreiBt das Herz uns eine Gewalt." Perhaps it is not a power thatis wrestingthe heart fromus, but the heart that is wrestinga power fromus: both "das Herz" and "eine Gewalt" can be eithernominative or accusative, subject or object. Gewaltwould be that of the and who demands the heart's sacri"der uber allen waltet," father, is disgraceful,uncalled fice. In either case, the action of entreifien for,and entails the omission of a necessarysacrifice:perhaps "das Herz" and "eine Gewalt" are one and the same. But it is impossibleto separate the "literal"and the "figurative" meanings offolgen because what German song followsis "dem": and the differboth the identity and deuten, singular,bothpflegen ence of letterand spirit.The distinctionof literal and figurative according to sensuous and spiritual meanings is commonly pre-

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supposed, but it is only that: a presupposition,and it may not be one shared by the poem: "Denn nichts ist gemein" according to can be made strophe thirteen"(2:1, 170). Before such distinctions and before it can be known what the closing lines of the poem mean, it is necessaryto know what meaning is: the poem calls for in itsterms?More specifibut what is interpretation interpretation, and what distinction the nature of what is the literal/figurative cally, is the relationbetweenitsterms?Althoughthe finalstrophecannot answer these questions, it articulatesthe problematicof the poem in typicallyHolderlinian fashion. The time in need of good inwhen we is a timewhen the heavenlyones are invisible, terpretation when we serve unknowingly, are blind,when we omitjust sacrifice, a timein particularand timeas such. The in short,it is a timewhen: forces threatening good interpretationin such a time are also of Holderlin. The dangerous extremesof blind subcharacteristic are the terms of the dilemma servience and willfulself-assertion aus dem wir das "Der the Gesichtspunkt fragment presented by fastkeine andere Altertumanzusehen haben": "Es scheintwirklich Wahl offenzu seyn,erdruktzu werden von Angenommenem,und Positivem,oder, mit gewaltsamerAnmaBung, sich gegen alles erlernte, gegebene, positive,als lebendige Kraft entgegenzusezen" of resolutionis offeredby the dis(4:1, 221). The only possibility tinctionbetween blind, unknowingsubservienceand a more conscious activity: "Es ist nemlich ein Unterschied ob jener Bilblind wirkt, oder mitBewuBtseyn, ob er weiB,woraus er dungstrieb und wohin er strebt" (4:1, 221). The burden of whatis hervorgieng called "das Altertum"in this essay is called "das Inferieure" in des poetischen "Reflexion,""Stoff' in "Uber die Verfahrungsweise of language in "Wink furdie Geistes,"and the given,"das Positive," Darstellungund Sprache." Each of these textsresolvesthe dilemma more or less successfully by dialecticalmediationof the opposition's terms which, in each case, could be called Bewufitseinand without doing too much violence to Holderlin's Selbstbewufitsein But whereas the problem of the essays is primarily conception.18 the exterior,positive,given side of the opposition,the last strophe of "Patmos," with its concern about Gewalt,Opfer,and deuten, suggests that the other side of the opposition-the reflecting
18

264.

und Knechtschaft beiHolderlin, See Leonardus van de Velde, Herrschaft pp. 231-

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consciousness-has become the more serious problem. This would certainlybe the case of the followinglines from "Der Einzige" (zweite Fassung)whichare a negativereplynot only to the prayerfor achieving"das Maas" cited earlierbut also to the resolutionoffered by "Der Gesichtspunkt": Seitnemlich b6serGeistsich des gluiklichen Altertums, unendlich, Bemachtiget wahrt das eines,gesangsfeind, Langher klanglos, aber In Maasenvergeht, des SinnesGewaltsames. Ungebundenes HassetGott.(2:1, 159) "Das Altertum"has been mastered only too well, and the "violence of the mind" ("des Sinnes Gewaltsames") proves to be as hostile to song ("gesangsfeind,klanglos") as slavish acceptance of antiquity'sprimacy.But it is not at all clear that the relation beis identical tweenthe "wir"or "ich" of "Patmos"and Holy Scripture to the relation between the poet and "Altertum"described in the ifdealing withthe essaysand letters.Indeed, itwould be surprising word of God-which includes retelling and re-forming the Gospel-were not even more problematic than coming to terms withGreek tyranny, for the Scripturesbelong to a sphere which is different from the necessaryrelationsof life,as Holderabsolutely lin insistsin the essay "Uber Religion": "Jene unendlicherenmehr als notwendigen Beziehungen des Lebens konnen zwar auch gedacht, aber nur nicht blos gedacht werden; der Gedanke Fassung), erschopftsie nicht" (4:1, 276). In "Der Einzige" (dritte Holderlin is reluctant to compare Christ to Dionysus and / Hercules-"Es hindertaber eine Schaam /Mich dir zu vergleichen Die weltlichenManner" (2:1, 163)-nevertheless, his shame is not enough to preventhim fromdoing so, and it is clear thatin being and to Holy Scriptureare at comparable the relationsto Altertum an understandingof one would shed light least similarin structure: on the other. So thatthe answersto the questions of interpretation and figurative language in a timeof need would containan aesthetand perhaps ics as well as an epistemology, theology,metaphysics, at a bad time: what is even more than that. Good interpretation this? II wenner faBt des Saemanns, Es istder Wurf den Waizen, Mitder Schaufel

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dem Klaren zu, ihn schwingenduber die Tenne, Und wirft, Ihm falltdie Schaale vor den FuBen, aber Ans Ende kommetdas Korn, Und nichtein Ubel ists,wenn einiges Verloren gehet und von der Rede Verhallet der lebendige Laut, Werk auch gleichetdem unsern, Denn gottliches Nicht alles will der Hochste zumal. Zwar Eisen tragetder Schacht, Und gluhende Harze der Aetna, So hatt' ich Reichtum, Ein Bild zu bilden, und ahnlich Zu schaun, wie er gewesen, den Christ, Wenn aber einer spornte sich selbst, Und traurigredend, unterweges,da ich wehrlos ware, Mich uberfiele,daB ich staunt' und von dem Gotte Das Bild nachahmen m6cht' ein KnechtIm Zorne sichtbarsah' ich einmal Des Himmels Herrn, nicht,daB ich seyn sollt etwas, sondern Zu lernen. Gutig sind sie, ihr VerhaBtestesaber ist, So lange sie herrschen,das Falsche, und es gilt Dann Menschlichesunter Menschen nichtmehr. (2:1, 169-170) Fortunately, all the questions are answered in one gesture: "Es ist der Wurf des Saemanns." This is no ordinary parable in that it is a synthesis of two New Testament parables: the parable of the sower and the separation of the wheat from the chaff. The latter is told by John the Baptist as he compares Christ to a winnower: "Und er hat seine Worfschaufel in der Hand; er wird seine Tenne fegen und den Weizen in seine Scheune sammeln; aber die Spreu wird er verbrennen mit unausloschlichem Feuer" (Matthdus 3:12). The parable of the sower is told by Christ himself: H6ret zu! Siehe, es gingein Saemann aus, zu saen. Und es begab sich, indem er sate, fiel etliches an den Weg; da kamen die Vogel und fraBen'sauf. Etlichesfielauf das Felsige,wo es nichtviel Erde hatte, und ging bald auf, darum daB es nichttiefeErde hatte. Da nun die Sonne hochstieg,verwelktees, und weil es nichtWurzel hatte,verdorrte es. Und etliches fiel unter die Dornen, und die Dornen und es brachte keine Frucht.Und wuchsen empor und erstickten's, etliches fiel auf gutes Land und ging auf und wuchs und brachte und hundertfaltig. und sechzigfaltig Frucht und trug dreiBigfaltig Und er sprach: Wer Ohren hat, zu horen, der h6re! (Markus4:3-9)

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Holderlin's parable combines the two: the sower is winnowing;the throws of the sower and of the winnower are the same throw. Whether or not this presentsa problem cannot be known before the parables are understood. The separationof the wheat fromthe chaffis relatively uncomplicated;John the Baptist is hearing confessions and preaching repentance: he baptizes with water, but Christ will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire at the Last Judgmentwhen he will separate the saved fromthe damned. The parable of the sower, however, is more significantin that it is privileged'in two ways. First,it is interpretedby Christ himself: "Der Saemann sit das Wort. Das aber sind die an dem Wege: wo das Wort gesat wird, und wenn sie es gehort haben, so kommt alsbald der Satan und nimmtdas Wort weg, das in sie gesat war. Desgleichen die, bei denen auf das Felsige gesat ist . . ." (Markus 4:14-20). The seed is the word of God, and, depending upon the and faithof those who hear it, it either flourishesor receptivity In perishes. short,the parable of the sower is the parable of parable is statedby Christ:"Verstehtihr and this,itssecond privilege, itself, dies Gleichnisnicht,wie wolltihr dann die andern alle verstehen?" of the parable (Markus4:13). Yet whereas Christ's interpretation would suggest that the reception or rejection of the sown word depends solely on the nature of the terrain on which it falls-in other words, we understand or do not understand the figurative meaning because of the kinds of people we are-his own justification of speaking in parables uncovers a second election:
es alles durch Gleichnisse, gegeben; denen aber drauBen widerfahrt auf daB sie es mitsehenden Augen sehen und doch nichterkennen, auf daB und mithorenden Ohren horen und doch nichtverstehen, sie sich nichtetwa bekehren und ihnen vergeben werde. (Markus4:11-12)

Gottes des Reiches Und er sprachzu ihnen:Euch istdas Geheimnis

Those who neithersee nor hear are separated fromthose who do: not only by theirown natures but also by Christ'sexpressed desire notto be understood byeveryone.As Jean Starobinski pointsout in This is the the message as well as the destinationof the message.19
19See Jean Starobinski,"Le combat avec Legion," in Troisfureurs(Paris: Gallimard, 1974), pp. 73-126.

his interpretation of this parable, election is built into the form of

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of his parable: the double election Holderlin grasps in the synthesis throwsof the sower and of the winnowercan be the same throw because both are actionsof election. The good word calls forgood interpretation. A concomitanttotalizationattemptedby the parable is the eraThis is explicitin the fusionof sower sure of temporaldistinctions. level: in being a and winnower and impliciton an inter-textual told or of different synthesis parables reported by differentauthors, Holderlin's parable would be electingeach of them to conJohn the Baptist,the precursorof the Word, Christ, temporaneity. hand and, the disciple who hears the Word at first the Word itself, as one of the elect,comprehends and writesit down, are all united, contemporaneous,in the throwof the sower. They all tell parables and each in his own way is a parable: John the Baptist, whose functionas precursor is to sacrificehimselffor his meaning, i.e., Christ's coming; the disciple, whose meaning is to point back to the parable of parables,whose meaning Christ;and Christhimself, himself-letterforspirit-and is to pointto the Fatherand sacrifice whose role as teacher is to send out his disciples, his parables, into the world,just as the Father had sent him intothe world. In stating of the repeated "when's" of the preceding strophethe necessity in time: "Nicht election: not all are saved, the parable's fulfillment alles will der H6chste zumal"-Holderlin's parable also affirmsa level on which the "when's" are meaningless,on which all are contemporaries in meaning. One could be called the level of literal meaning. The parable of meaning,the other the level of figurative the sower is, in a sense, a figureforthe figureof figure(s).Strophe ten is a text-"Wenn . . . wenn . . . wenn"-which demands a reading-"was istdies?" Stropheeleven replies,"It is the distinction sense." between the literaland the figurative What remains problematic, however, is the distinctionitself: whatis the relationof figurative to literalin Holderlin's parable, or, In synis it stillpossible to make the distinction? more important, the and in New Testament the two parables sublating temthesizing the literal and its difference between the fulfillment, parable poral and the figurative, Holderlin's totalizing parable has also it has placed literaland figurative "literalized"the figure, or, better, on the same level and therebymade it impossible to distinguish This is signalledby the easy betweenthemas literalor as figurative. transitionthe strophe makes between one sense and another: all

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that is necessary to pass from grain to "Rede" and "lebendiger Laut" is an "und." It is not so much that the "figurative" has been "literalized"or vice versa but that the bridge which makes it possible to call one side literaland the other figurative, whichgrantsone side temporal priority and the other eternal priority, has been colThis in is more even a lapsed. collapse "explicit" change Holderlin made between thisversion of the parable and the sketchof a later version:"Es istder Wurfdas eines Sinns" (2:1, 177). The identity of is and destination one word: the into sender, message, compressed thrower(the Mind, the Meaning), the thrown(the sense: sensuous and spiritual,literaland figurative), and the receiversof the throw saved the in the electionof the and damned who are inscribed (the who will or hear not hear to message, depending upon theirability and in It is literal are all united Sinn. distinguish figurative) possible to pass from sense to sense but it is not possible to say which is literaland which figurative: all senses are proper and all improper. So thatwhen Holderlin sayshis workis similarto divineworkin not at once-"Denn gottliches Werk auch gleichet wantingeverything dem unsern,/Nichtalles willder Hochste zumal"-he is, in a sense, not tellingthe truth,forwhat his parable wants to say is the simultaneous necessity and impossibility of the distinction betweenliteral and figurative. There is a name forsuch a foundingand subverting figure-one which is both figurativeand literal,proper and improper,and neither-and it is mostappropriate to describe a parable whichjoins the actions of sower and winnowerin a far-fetched (far-flung?) metaphor: catachresis,the violent,forced,or abusive of imposition a signon a sense whichdoes not have a proper sign in the language, the production of a sense, a meaning, and, as such, In not tellingthe truth, of all meaning.20 the conditionof possibility Holderlin's catachreticnaming of the nameless, making sense of of truth. the senseless,founds the possibility The lines which follow Holderlin's parable of the sower mediof its tate on the consequences of such a naming and the authority of truth.Whereas the parable expresses confidencein the similarity God's workand "our" work-it does not matterif some meaning is
20 of catachresisis a paraphrase ofJacques Derrida's paraphrase of This definition Fontanier in Jacques Derrida, "La mythologieblanche," in Marges, p. 304. For a discussionof the philological(epistemological)problemsinvolvedin the question of inHHlderlinlanguages see PeterSzondi, "Uber philologischeErkenntnis," figurative Studien, pp. 9-34.

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because all willbe made good in the fullnessof lost,misunderstood, between time-the new parable declares a radical incompatibility fromthe problemof meaning divineand human workas itswitches in general to the truthor falsity of particularmeaning in imitation. The poem's "ich" returns for the firsttime since the Einkehrto Patmos in the fourthstropheand, unlikethe "we" of the preceding at once: "So hatt'ich Reichtum,/ lines,overtlyasks foreverything Ein Bild zu bilden." The "I" is not satisfiedwith the role of inand would like of parables, withbeing a parable himself, terpreter to copy the image of Christexactlyas he was. That is, he wantsto be more than a disciple contemporaryin spirit-i.e., on the level of meaning-and would be an immediatecontemporaryfigurative i.e., on the level of literalmeaning-as well. That thisdesire represents the same attemptto collapse the distinction between figurativeand literalmade in the parable of the sower is clear in itsterms. The "so" of"So hatt'ich Reichtum"impliesthe subject'scomparing himselfto (or drawing a conclusion from,in the sense of "therefore") the forcesof nature: the pit which bears iron and the volcano. He would have the same resources and the same power for the task of creation as nature does; his drive is for spontaneous, natural, original creation: "das Ungebildete zu bilden" ("Der 4:1, 221). But this kind of immediacyis youthful, Gesichtspunkt," and "Patmos" is well aware of it as is obviself-destructive, illusory, ous in the explicitreferencesto Holderlin's earlier work: Aetna is the volcano into whichEmpedocles threwhimself, and Holderlin's for Empedosimilarto his lament forReichtum is remarkably prayer cles: "hattestdu / Nur deinen Reichtumnicht,o Dichter,/ Hin in den gahrenden Kelch geopfert!" ("Empedokles," 1:1, 240). The appellation "Dichter" identifiesmore preciselythe kind of riches which Empedocles sacrificedin committingsuicide; it is his lanof the word would suggest,his mastery guage, or, as the etymology over language: "die bedeutungsentwicklung von reichtum wurzeltin dem begriffe herrlichkeit."21 Herder, imperium, gewalt,herrschaft, in theFragmente, in similarterms speaks of the poet's Mluttersprache as "eine Schatzkammer": "In ihr muB er also mit der groBten Leichtigkeit nachsinnen und Ausdrucke finden, in ihr den Reichtumvon Bildern und Farben finden,der einem Dichter unumganglich ndtig ist; in ihr die Donnerkeulen und Blitzstrahlen
21 See

"Reichtum"in Grimm,(Leipzig: 1893), VIII, p. 616.

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and later: "Hier kann er in finden,die er als Bote der Gotterwirft"; die Tiefe graben und Gold suchen und Berge auffuhren und Strome leiten, denn er ist Hausherr."22To have Reichtum, then, would mean to have a mother language, to have enough mastery The over hisownlanguage to be able to forman image of Christ.23 with Gleichnis: word Bild is often used by Christ interchangeably "Solches habe ich zu euch in Spruchen und Bildern geredet. Es kommtaber die Zeit,daB ich nichtmehr in Bildern miteuch reden werde, sondern euch freiheraus verkundigenvon meinem Vater" 16:25). (Johannes But the youthfulwish for immediacy and his own language is complicatedby the factthat here it is Christwho is to be seen and imitatedimmediately-as John the Evangelist,derSeher,saw him: "es sahe der achtsame Mann / Das Angesichtdes Gottes genau"is contained withinthe words and the paradox of such an imitation "Bild" and "bilden." Bild means likeness,image, parable, but the full importof the word is not conveyed until it is understood to the godly in man: "Und Gott sprach: Lasset uns Menschen signify Menschen zu seinem Bilde, zum Bilde Gottes schuf er ihn" (Das Buch Mose 1:26-27). The godly in man would of course be the erste soul, and this is the origin of the verb bilden:"There is agreement now on its beginnings in the language of the mediaeval Mystics meant 'to imprintGod's image in one's soul.' "24 To where inbilden formaBild of Christ,then,would presentspecificproblems:one, it on the poet's part to compare himselfto God in would be hubris believing that he could make an image of that which is godly in to copy Christexactlyas he was Christ; two, and more interesting, ("wie er gewesen"), in time, would mean to copy his earthly,hu22 Johann Gottfried ed. Erich Heintel Herder, Sprachphilosophische Schriften, (Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1964), pp. 149-150. 23 Cf. "Wink fir die Darstellung und Sprache," (4:1, 263-4):

machen, ein Bild, das uns gleich sei ...

Und Gott schuf den

undes istvorziiglich daBer indiesem nichts als gegeben annehme, wichtig, Augenblike vonnichts daBdie Natur hat undKunst, so wieersiekennen positivem ausgehe, gelernt und sieht, nicht eherspreche, ehe furihneine Spracheda ist ... dennwarevor der Reflexion aufdenunendlichen Stoff unddie unendliche Form eineSprache der irgend seinesWirkungskreises, er trateaus seinerSchopfung heraus,und die Spracheder Natur oderder Kunst, dereinenoderderandern wareerstlich, jeder modus exprimendi sie nicht insofern seine [ware].... Sprache 24 Keith Spalding, An Historical Dictionary of GermanFigurative Usage, fasc. 7, p. 315.
Natur und Kunst fur ihn in bestimmter nichtinnerhalb Gestaltda, so ware er insofern

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man, literal form: it would mean to form an image of an image. This is already implied in the redundant formulation"ein Bild zu statedin "von dem Gott/das Bild nachahmen." bilden"and explicitly The "ich" is fallenupon, and sees God in anger, as punishmentfor his attemptto imitatean image. The most serious consequence of this attemptand its necessaryfailureis its disquietingimplications about the natures of both God and man. If man cannot grasp the God because he cannot grasp an absolute differenceand is therefore doomed to producing mere images of images, then all his are conceptions of God, the Unknown, the absolutely different, his in God he creates mere images of himself, anthropomorphisms: "das is this false-and own image. But if man's images of God are Falsche" in line eight of the twelfth strophe-then he, who is hima of forming selfthe image of God, is also false.That the possibility true a of true image of man depends upon the possibility forming image of God is conveyedby the penitentlines: "Im Zorne sichtbar solltetwas, sah' ich einmal /Des Himmels Herrn, nicht,daB ichseyn of the form an In to sondern / Zu lernen." God, he image trying The entire himself. be to was also trying problematicis something unter Dann Menschliches line "und es / the into gilt compressed Menschen nicht mehr" which also summarizes the imagery of money and counterfeiting begun in "So hatt'ich Reichtum": if the then the coins coins whichthe poet rendersto God are counterfeit, an he renders to Caesar are no less so.25The attemptto construct and both God of in a deconstruction of God has resulted image
man.26
25 Cf. "Der Tod

des Empedokles" (dritteFassung): Denn viel gesiindigethab ich von Jugend auf, Die Menschen menschlichnie geliebt,gedient, Wie Wasser nur und Feuer blinder dient, Darum begegneten auch menschlichmir Sie nicht,o darum schandeten sie mir Mein Angesicht... (4:1, 122)

26 For a strikingly similar deconstruction see Soren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), pp. 55-57. Especially:

deepest down in the heart of pietylurks the mad caprice which knows that it has itself can be held fast,because of difference produced the God. If no specificdetermination there is no distinguishingmark, like and unlike finallybecome identifiedwith one another,thus sharingthe fateof all such dialectical opposites.The unlikeness clingsto the Reason and confounds it, so that the Reason no longer knows itselfand quite consistentlyconfuses itselfwith the unlikeness ... the God becomes the most terribleof deceivers,because the Reason has deceived itself.The Reason has broughtthe God as near as possible, and yet he is as far away as ever.

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of thisdeconIt is hardlynecessaryto demonstratethe similarity structionto the sublation of the distinctionbetween literal and figurativeaccomplished in the catachretic parable of the sower, but, in addition,a relationmay be establishedbetween themwhich simultaneously helps to focustheirrelationto the restof the poem. betweenthe senses of sightand hearThere is a revealinginterplay in there is in the restof the poem and in the these (as ing strophes from Luther's Bible). As is clear fromthe parable quoted passages of the sower, the mediated and mediating sense-the sense that accepts (at least apparently) differenceand the postponementof truth-is hearing: "Und nichtein Ubel ists,wenn einiges/Verloren Laut." As is equally derlebendige gehet und von der Rede /Verhallet the sense thatdemands clear fromthe parable of the counterfeiter, immediacy-"ahnlich zu schaun"-is sight.If hearing can be identifiedwiththe faithful sense, and sightwiththe deluding figurative literalsense, then new meaning can be gained for the poet's being fallen upon on the road. Someone, "einer," spurs himselfon and "talkingsadly,on the way" falls upon the poet. This is an obvious allusion to the appearance of Christto the discipleson theirway to Emmaus: "Er sprach aber zu ihnen: Was sind das fur Reden, die ihr zwischen euch handelt unterwegs?Da blieben sie traurig steis the alluhen" (Lukas 24:17). Less obvious, but equally significant sion to Saul's being struckdown on the way to Damascus; later, Paul tellsthe story of his conversion:"und er erzahlteihnen,wie er auf dem Wege den Herrn gesehen und der mit ihm geredet" (Die desLukas 9:27). In both narrativesthere is a moveApostelgeschichte ment from blindness to sight to blindness: the disciples do not recognize Christon the road as he speaks to them and interprets Holy Scripturefor them,but, when he breaks bread withthem at table, their eyes are opened and Christ disappears: "Da wurden und sie erkannten ihn. Und er verschwand ihre Augen geoffnet, vor ihnen" (Lukas 24:13); when he is struckdown Paul does not recognize Christuntilbeing told "Ich bin Jesus, den du verfolgst" and, afterward,is blind for three days: "Saulus aber richtetesich auf von der Erde; und als er seine Augen auftat,sah er nichts"(Die desLukas 9:8). Both the disciples in theirweakness Apostelgeschichte of faithand Paul in his being a persecutorof Christsee and do not see, "sehen und doch nichterkennen,"beforetheirconversions.In both cases, the new physical blindness-Christ's absence from sight-marks a correspondingincrease of spiritualsight,that is, in the sense of hearing: both the disciplesand Paul go out and preach

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the word. The trouble with the "ich" of the twelfth strophe,howbetween the on he too is is senses, he is ever, that,although way the between the On in direction. the parable of way wrong going between hearing the sower and the parable of the counterfeiter, to and literal,he is caught, defenseless,trying and sight,figurative to see thatwhichcan onlybe heard, to form literalizethe figurative, that which can only grow in time. to consider one of Holderlin's most At thispoint it is worthwhile "Von der on meditations Sinn, the Pindar-Fragment suggestive Wahrheit": das erste an ihr.Nemlich aus Wohlgefallen Furcht vorderWahrheit, wie alles im Sinne derselben Auffassen ist, lebendigen lebendige aus so daB mannicht reineGefihl,Verwirrungen irret, ausgesetzt; h6heren des sondern aus einer noch auch Schuld, St6rung, eigener derSinnzu schwach fur den,verhaltniBmaBig, wegen, Gegenstandes ist. (5, 282) As in a great deal of Holderlin's late work there is a confusion among epistemological,ethical and eudaemonic levels: "Furcht," "Wahrheit,""Wohlgefallen,""Auffassen,""Sinn," "Gefiihl,""Verwirrungen,""irret,""Schuld," etc. are interwovenin one enunciation,and itwould be impossibleto unravel the strandsof true/false, good/evil,and pleasure/pain in these lines. As if this were not enough, thecrucialwords-"Auffassen" and "Sinn"-are whatmay be called "speculative"or "dialectical"words: thatis, theycarrytwo to the sensuous, the other to the intellecmeanings,one referring "lebentual faculties.7Although the adjective in the formulations the as well Sinn" Auffassen" and (as phrase "wie "lebendiger diges alles reine Geftihl")would suggest thatthe senses are meant here, Holderlin's peculiar use of the word "lebendig"-e.g., to signify successfuldialectical mediation as in "lebendige Kunst" etc.-and the use of "Sinn" in the singular would open other possibilities. One errsbecause (the) sense is too weak. Before the senses of sense are unravelled, Holderlin's emphases should be remarked: one does not err because of one's own faultor because of a disturbance or fromoutside but because (the) sense is too weak proportionately, is posited in relationto the higherobject thatis truth.A difference
27 For a listand an analysisof "speculative" words in Hegel see Jean-Luc Nancy, La remarque especially pp. 69-94. speculative,

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between the levels or spheres of truthon the one hand and (the) sense on the other. How thisdifference is construeddepends upon the reading of Sinn. If "der Sinn" is understood to signifythe sensuous facultiesin general,then the implicationis thatthe senses are too weak, too low, to grasp truthbecause truthexists only on the level of the mind. If "der Sinn" is understood to signifythe intellectualfaculties in general, the mind, then the sense is too weak, too low, in that it is the mind of man, a fallencreature,and therefore cannot grasp the spiritual,divine nature of truth.In this the stresswould be placed upon "eigener" in the phrase reading the weakness of the mind is not one's own Schuld"-i.e., "eigener fault or but the faultof man in general, the condilack particular tion of man-and a radical (unsublatable), absolute differencebetween the realms of (divine) truth and (human) sense would be implied. But thislatterreading may be reading in too much sense, and a translatedversion of it may be more satisfying: the sense, as is too weak to truth because itself, meaning it is a meaning grasp of an differences and forgetting arbitrary positing. In this case, a distinction would be suggestedbetween"das erste lebendige Auffassen," "lebendiger Sinn," and "reines Gefuhl"on the one hand, and the unmodified "der Sinn" on the other. That is, the first, living, immediate perception of truth in the living sense-in the metaphoricaltermsof"Patmos," thiswould be the sense of sightcan grasp truth,but this truth is just as immediatelyexposed to confusionsbecause it appears in the form of "reines Gefihl." In Holderlin's dialectic,das Reinecan never appearas such: "Das Reine kann sich nur darstellen im Unreinen" (Letter to Neuffer, November 12, 1798, 6:1, 290). In otherwords,thereis a transition, a translation, between the first perception"im lebendigen Sinne" and the succeeding conceptionin Sinn, in which (translation)the of truthin itscompletenessis lost. Error,then,would not be purity a mistakeor a momentarydisturbancebut the verycondition of meaning: "der lebendige Sinn" in its puritywould be absolutely sheer exteriority, and "der Sinn," unable to grasp the different, of the truth presented by the living sense, would be an totality arbitrary imposition.Such an understandingof Sinn clarifiesthe fear of truthexpressed in the introductory phrases. Truth is to be feared on account of taking pleasure in it because this pleasure, uncoversthe natureof truth;to take pleasure Kantian Wohlgefallen, in truthis to know it in the only way it can be known: as a workof

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is not takenin art,somethingthatis "enjoyed" insofaras an interest its existence,insofaras it does not exist.28 III Nah ist zu fassen der Gott. Und schwer Wo aber Gefahr ist,wachst Das Rettende auch. Im Finstern wohnen Die Adlerund furchtlos gehn Die Sohne der Alpenuberden Abgrund weg Bruken. Aufleichtgebaueten sindrings Drum,da gehauft Die Gipfel der Zeit,und die Liebsten auf Nah wohnen, ermattend Getrenntesten Bergen, So giebunschuldig Wasser, Sinns O Fittige giebuns,treuesten und wiederzukehren. Hinuberzugehn (2:1, 165) strophe Usually supposed to pose the poem's questions,the first also presupposes the "answers." The poem's "ich"-"So sprach ich"-asks for innocent water and wings, "treuesten Sinns," in order to go over and to return."Unschuldig Wasser" may referto Baptism with water, in which case it would be the Baptism performed by John the Baptist, and then the wings of truest sense would be the Baptismwiththe Holy SpiritperformedbyChrist:the Sinn,as poem would be askingforfaith.But ifwatercan be innocent, to conhas been demonstrated,never is, and it may be worthwhile If Sinn is understoodas sider the waysin whichSinn can be faithful. immediate perception, then, in the metaphorical terms of the poem, sightwould be the truestsense. But what was true for the and "Von der Wahrheit"holds forthe parable of the counterfeiter rest of the poem: sightmay be the most immediate sense, but, as such, it is also the sense most exposed to error. The "Asia" of "Patmos" is a realm of sight: it is described in visual images, resplendent with colors-"goldgeschmiikte Pactol" and "silberne Schnee"-its garden of flowersis "ein stilles Feuer," and its streets are "schattenlos." Blinded, the "ich" is unused to such splendor and
28 For an of Kant's third Critique, which includes this reading of interpretation see Jacques Derrida, "Le parergon,"Digraphe 2, ed. Irigaray,Ristat,et Wohlgefallen, al. (Paris: Editions Galilee, 1974), pp. 21-57.

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vainlyseeks a point of reference:"und geblendet sucht'/Ich eines, Unlike the "ich," however, the boatman-the das ich kennete."29 die In"Genius," the truestsense-knows the islands ("Doch kennt and it is throughhim thatthe "ich" hearsabout seln der Schiffer") Patmos: "Und da ich horte/Der nahegelegenen eine /Sei Patmos." In contrastto Asia, Patmos is a realm of hearing: it hears gladlyof des heiBen the stranger'sapproach, its children are "Die Stimmen Hains," itssoundshear the stranger-"die Laute /Sie horen ihn"and itcares forthe strangevisitor byechoing his lament. In coming froma realm of sightand immediacywhere he was blinded, to turn in at the dark grotto of Patmos,the "ich"of the poem is like John"es sahe der "der Seher"-who in his youthsaw the Christdirectly: achtsameMann /Das Angesichtdes Gottesgenau." In otherwords, the only way to preserve the God in his absence fromsightis preciselyto preserve him in his absence: i.e., in the realm of hearing. The truest sense, then, would be hearing-Herder's "Sinn der Sprache"30-which is coincident with thought. But if this sense is the blinding differtruestin preservingan absence, in forgetting is nothingless ences of immediacy,then its statusas most faithful than paradoxical, and the attemptto formulatethe paradox is evident in the characterizationsof Holy Scripture in the thirteenth Kraft" falls from Holy and fourteenthstrophes: "Stillleuchtende afraid of the beam" those practiceupon the quiet "sharp Scripture, can be underformulations of these stillen Each Blike"). gaze ("Am stood as an attempt to convey in one word or phrase both the primacyand secondarinessof Holy Scripture-its statusas second origin-as well as the inabilityto posit a first origin, to decide whetherit is sightor hearing, lightningor thunder, that is to be privileged.The truestsense would be neither sight nor hearing,
A similar disjunction between seeing and knowing is suggested in the sixth strophewhere Christdoes not have words enough to say about kindnessbecause he sees the wrath of the world: "denn nie genug / Hatt' er von Guitezu sagen / Der Worte,damals,und zu erheitern,da / Ers sahe, das Ziirnen der Welt" (2:1, 167). 30 Herder, "Abhandlung fiberden Ursprung der Sprache," Sprachphilosophische Schriften, pp. 41-44: von Das Gehor derEmpfindbarkeit istdermittlere dermenschlichen an Spharen Sinne, auBen.... Das Gehoristder mittlere den Sinnen an Deutlichkeit und Klarheit unter undalsowiederum SinnderSprache SinninAnsehung .... Das Gehoristdermittlere Sinn in der Lebhaftigkeit und also Sinn der Sprache... Das Gehoristder mittlere Betracht der Zeit,in der es wirkt, und also Sinnder Sprache.... Das Gehoristder sichauszudriicken, undalsoSinnderSprache mittlere SinninAbsicht des Bedurfnisses und also Sinnder .... Das Gehoristder mittlere Sinnin Absicht seiner Entwicklung, Sprache.
29

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but rather meaning: the preservation neithersenses nor intellect, between senses, literaland figurative, letterand of the differences spirit. Seen fromthispoint of view (or "listened to in such a way"), the firststrophe is a series of attemptsto formulatethe identityof and difference:whetherexpressed in termsof the simulidentity taneous nearness and farnessof the God or "die Liebsten,"simuland secondarinessin the spatialized temtaneous contemporaneity poralityof "Gipfel der Zeit" and "Nah . .. auf / Getrenntesten Bergen," or simultaneoussightand hearing,literaland figurative, in Sinn, the problematicis the same (and different).In order to of identity and differencebridges, passages, preserve the identity and mediators are necessary; such a one is the poem which goes over and returnsand whose beginning,middle, and end are Sinn: The verb wiederkehren sums up the probidentical and different. lem: if returningmeant coming back to the same place, then the verbwiederkommen would have been more appropriate. But forthat sterile which is human such a coming back would be mereidentity, one-sidedness; only the God can comeback: "Denn wiederkommen is a sollt es / Zu rechterZeit" (2:1, 168). The poem's wiederkehren to Asia the over a as a and journey turningagain re-turning: going and the turningin (einkehren) at Patmos demonstrate.The asymof "hiniiberzugehn"and "wiederzukehren"is a loss of idenmetry and a gain of meaning. tity and difMaintainingthe bridge betweensenses,between identity in difficult the late Holderlin as the becomes ference, increasingly most "insignificant" one their innocence and lose words, by one, of of "Sinn" in "Von der a Such is the case gain surplus meaning. Wahrheit." But this "Pindar-Fragment"and "Patmos," although both deconstructthe oppositionswhich theywould affirm, are still able to maintain the tension between senses and readings. In the of hymnseven the hope for successfulmediation, late fragments without excess, has to be abandoned. A passage in the Aufhebung "Der Vatikan" contains the explicitplea for the familiar fragment of and difference as well as a warning: identity identity Gottreinund mitUnterscheidung das istuns vertrauet, Bewahren, weilan diesem Damitnicht, fiber der BiiBung, fiber einemFehler Viel hangt, Des Zeichens Gottes Gericht enstehet. (2:1, 252)

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God has to be preserved in his purityand in his difference:"rein" could be understood as God the Father and "mit Unterscheidung" as Christ, but, in any case, the necessityof the identityof this and differenceis clear from the "und" which links them, identity and the the one verb "bewahren"which suggestsa keeping in truth, As in vertrauet." ist uns in line "das "das" the "Patmos," singular our trustis to be treuto thisdialectic,lestGod's judgment arise over the failure of the sign. The sign's failure could be our error in but itcould also be the it,in not keeping our trust, misinterpreting failureof the sign itself.This would be the election of the parable of the sower: those who hear are separated fromthose who do not according to their abilityto hear the message, to understand the figurativemeaning, but, also, their separation is always already inscribed in the form of the message itself.The failure,lack, or error of the sign the necessitythat some meaning be lost-is its condition,and this reading is supported by a corresponding paswhich could be construed as a reply: sage later in the fragment, aufrecht Der Kranich haltdie Gestalt drilben Die Majestatische, keusche, In Patmos, Morea,in der Pestluft. der Schriften und die Eule, wohlbekannt Turkisch, Aber in zerst6rten Stadten. Fraun heischern gleich Spricht, den Sinn.Oftaber wieein Brand Die erhalten Entstehet Sprachverwirrung. (2:1, 253) It is the familiartime of need: "der Kranich," Holderlin's symbol for utter solitarinessand desolation, holds the form upright in Patmos. This may be an allusion to the supposedly successfulinof Holy Scripturein the poem "Patmos," and the folterpretation lowinglines would corroborate:unlikethe crane of Patmos,the owl speaks, of the Scriptures,like garrulous women in wasted cities. Although the followingline ("Aber die erhalten den Sinn") would be the familiar expressionof faithin a dialecticalmediation-i.e., in the Scripperpetratedby misinterpretation, spiteof the differences can be questures keep their meaning-this time the mediation "erhalof "die"? Does tioned at each word: what is the antecedent it to ten" mean to keep, preserve,or does mean get, procure, obwith the first To start tain? And the inevitable: what is "Sinn"? The or "Schriften." question: "die" can referto "Stadten,""Fraun," third are but the second and first seems unlikely, equally possible: the Scriptureskeep the sense, and the women, although misinter-

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preting,get the sense (although it may not be the same as that preserved by the Scriptures). But the simile must not be overlooked: the owl speaks of the Scriptureslike garrulous women. If the "die" who keep or get the sense are neitherthe Scripturesnor the women, and both, then the only one who keeps and gets the sense is the simileitself:they,the literaland figurative senses, keep the sense by preserving the differencewithin sense. Whichever reading is preferred,the line, rather than preservingsense, unleashes an excess of senses, and the followingline can be understood as a commentaryon this failure: "Oft aber wie ein Brand / In a place where the earlier HolderEntstehetSprachverwirrung." lin would have written a conciliatory, mediatingund is now found another sharp, uncompromising aber; ratherthan being contained in any way, the excess of senses in the preceding line is repeated, exacerbated, and legitimatedin a tellingway by means of another of Scripture,the simile: "wie ein Brand." The misinterpretations are likened obliquely to confusionsof sense, and Sprachverwirrung the giftof tongues at the Pentecost.In Holderlin's anti-Pentecost, the New Testament communityof spirit becomes utter incomthe failureof the sign, and God's judgment. Rather municability, than going over and re-turning-from sense to sense-the late fragments collapse the bridge between sense and non-sense.31
Yale University

31 In much of hisvery late poetryHolderlin is stillconcerned withthe problemsof making sense. The closing lines of"Aussicht" read: Oftscheint die Innerheit der Weltumwolkt, verschlossen, SinnvonZweifeln Des Menschen voll,verdrossen, Die prachtige Naturerheitert seineTage Und ferne steht des Zweifels dunkleFrage. (2:1, 287) The conjuringaway of the doubt whichclouds man's mind is accomplishedunproblematically:no "aber" is needed, splendid nature simply brightenshis day, and doubt's dark question is placed at a distance (until the followingnight,no doubt). of all Holderlin's very late poetry: few This placing at a distance is symptomatic the poetryis bereftof"but's," and the subjectis always personal pronouns interfere, "der Mensch" and "die Natur" in the abstractand in a monological relationshipto and place at a distance one another. As if these devices were not enough to solidify and dialogue the threateningfluidity of doubt (Zweifel), ambiguity(Zweideutigkeit) the poem "Aussicht"is dated "the 24th of March 1671" and signed (Zwiegesprich), "Mit Unterthanigkeit, Scardanelli" by Holderlin, schizophrenicand monological.