.
Pinax of Persephone and Hades on the throne, found in the holy shrine of Persephone at Locri in the district Mannella. Locri was part of Magna Graecia and is situated on the coast of the Ionian Sea in Calabria, Italy: image by AlMare, September 2002 (Museo Nazionale Archeologico, Reggio Di Calabria, Italy)
Ripe are, dipped in fire, cooked
The fruits and proved upon the earth and an Order it is
That all must enter in, as snakes,
Prophetic, dreaming upon
The hills of heaven. And much
As on the bent shoulders
A load of logs
Must be retained. But evil are
The ways. For errantly
Like wild horses, run the constrained
Elements and the ancient
Orders of the earth. And always
Toward unboundedness goes out longing. Much however must
Be retained. And fidelity is required.
Forward however nor back will
We look. And allow ourselves to be rocked, like
A light boat at sea.
Pinax of Persephone opening the "Liknon Mystikon", found and in the holy shrine of Persephone at Locri in the district Mannella. Locri was part of Magna Graecia and is situated on the coast of the Ionian Sea in Calabria, Italy: image by AlMare, September 2002 (Museo Nazionale Archeologico, Reggio Di Calabria, Italy)
While... Hölderlin's technique, which is tempered by Greek, is not lacking in boldly formed hypotactic constructions, still the parataxes are striking -- artificial disturbances that evade the logical hierarchy of a subordinating syntax. Hölderlin is irresistibly drawn to such constructions. The transformation of language into a serial order whose elements are linked differently than in the judgment is musiclike.
While... Hölderlin's technique, which is tempered by Greek, is not lacking in boldly formed hypotactic constructions, still the parataxes are striking -- artificial disturbances that evade the logical hierarchy of a subordinating syntax. Hölderlin is irresistibly drawn to such constructions. The transformation of language into a serial order whose elements are linked differently than in the judgment is musiclike.
-- Theodor Adorno: Parataxis: On Hölderlin's Late Poetry, a talk given at the annual conference of the Hölderlin-Gesellschaft, Berlin, 7 June 1963; revised version first published in Die Neue Rundschau, 1964; translated by Shierry Weber Nicholsen in Theodor Adorno: Notes to Literature, Volume Two, 1992
Friedrich Hölderlin: "Reif sind..." (Ripe are the fruits), Hymnal Draft for Mnemosyne (Third Version), 1803 or 1805/1806 [?], trans. by TC
