Friedrich H?lderlin - H?lfte des Lebens

[Omo]

Hello,
I would like to make a survey concerning different translations of this famous H?lderlin poem into English. Please tell me which translation you prefer and possibly why.

Original poem:

Mit gelben Birnen h?nget
Und voll mit wilden Rosen
Das Land in den See,
Ihr holden Schw?ne,
Und trunken von K?ssen
Tunkt ihr das Haupt
Ins heilign?chterne Wasser.

Weh mir, wo nehm ich, wenn
Es Winter ist, die Blumen, und wo
Den Sonnenschein,
Und Schatten der Erde?
Die Mauern stehn
Sprachlos und kalt, im Winde
Klirren die Fahnen.


Literal translation (by me):

Half of Life

With yellow pears hangs
And full with wild roses
The land into the lake,
You graceful swans,
And drunk with kisses
You dip the head
Into the holy-sober water.

Woe is me, where do I take, when
It is winter, the flowers, and where
The sunshine
And the shadow of the earth?
The walls stand
Speechless and cold, in the wind
The banners clink.

1) Translation by Michael Hamburger

The Middle of Life

With yellow pears the land
And full of wild roses
Hangs down into the lake,
You lovely swans,
And drunk with kisses
You dip your heads
Into the hallowed, the sober water.

But oh, where shall I find
When winter comes, the flowers, and where
The sunshine
And shade of the earth?
The walls loom
Speechless and cold, in the wind
weathercocks clatter.


2) Translation by Richard Sieburth

Half of Life

With its yellow pears
And wild roses everywhere
The shore hangs in the lake,
O gracious swans,
And drunk with kisses
You dip your heads
In the sobering holy water.

Ah, where will I find
Flowers, come winter,
And where the sunshine
And shade of the earth?
Walls stand cold
And speechless, in the wind
The weathervanes creak.


3) Translation by David Constantine

Half of Life

The land with yellow pears
And full of wild roses
Hangs into the lake
O gracious swans
And drunk with kisses
You plunge your heads
Into the holy, the sober water.

Alas, for where in winter
Shall I come by flowers and where
The sunlight and
The shade of the earth?
The walls stand
Speechless and cold, the wind
Clatters the weathervanes.

[Eric]

Despite Omo having a non-de-plume that would suggest washing-powder rather than a sybaritic Sch?ngeist who likes Mann, wine and music, s/he presents an interesting challenge: should we accept one of the four translations or, to use a Woolies expression, do a pick-'n-mix, cobbling together all the good bits from the four translations?

As this is serious stuff, something requiring thought and close comparison, I've printed out the original and the four translations, and will have a good look. But a few immediate comments:

The first thing I must understand to my own satisfaction is what the exact syntax of the first stanza is. The old-fashioned idea of subject-object-verb is important here. Is the first stanza in effect two sentences, the break coming at "...den See, / Ihr holden..."?

And are the swans graceful, lovely, or gracious? Nuances. "Graceful" tells about the body and poise, "gracious" about mental attitude and nobility. I wonder whether Constantine is mixing up the two. "My gracious lord" ain't the same as "my graceful lord".

Another challenge is "heilign?chterne". In English we don't like to hyphenate to emulate compound words in other languages. So, I'm afraid that "holy-sober" reminds me too much of "holy smoke!". Hamburger splits the image into two clauses. Sieburth is OK. Constantine almost copies Hamburger, at least regarding the split-up of the sentence.

In English, we tend to use "my", "your" , etc., with parts of the body. And we make the heads plural if there is more than one swan. So I prefer "dip your heads" to the rather German-influenced "dip the head".

"Tunken". My dictionary says it can be used when you dip or dunk a piece of bread in your tea. So I think that Constantine's "plunge" is too energetic.

*

Is there a H?lderlin anniversary or similar being held? Why I ask is that I noticed, on a Swedish-language website run by one Bodil Zalesky, a discussion of Mikael Enckell's recent book in Swedish on this poet. See:

Hyperions Schicksalslied | Bodil Zalesky (http://bodilzalesky.com/blog/2009/06/06/hyperions-schicksalslied/)

and

Mikael Enckell l?ser Hyperion | Bodil Zalesky (http://bodilzalesky.com/blog/2009/06/05/mikael-enckell-laser-hyperion/)

[Mirabell]

Despite Omo having a non-de-plume that would suggest washing-powder rather than a sybaritic Sch?ngeist who likes Mann, wine and music, s/he presents an interesting challenge: should we accept one of the four translations or, to use a Woolies expression, do a pick-'n-mix, cobbling together all the good bits from the four translations?

As this is serious stuff, something requiring thought and close comparison, I've printed out the original and the four translations, and will have a good look. But a few immediate comments:

The first thing I must understand to my own satisfaction is what the exact syntax of the first stanza is. The old-fashioned idea of subject-object-verb is important here. Is the first stanza in effect two sentences, the break coming at "...den See, / Ihr holden..."?

Be clear. Is the fist stanza "two sentences"? No. Is it two main clauses? Yes, it is, you can attach an endless amount of main clauses with a comma in German, that form one (long) sentence. The last three lines are similarly two main clauses connected by a comma.

And are the swans graceful, lovely, or gracious? Nuances. "Graceful" tells about the body and poise, "gracious" about mental attitude and nobility. I wonder whether Constantine is mixing up the two. "My gracious lord" ain't the same as "my graceful lord".

The German word allows for both. Although graceful is the most direct meaning of the word, it also allows for gracious; I think Constantine was afraid to lose that connotation with graceful.

Another challenge is "heilign?chterne". In English we don't like to hyphenate to emulate compound words in other languages. So, I'm afraid that "holy-sober" reminds me too much of "holy smoke!". Hamburger splits the image into two clauses. Sieburth is OK. Constantine almost copies Hamburger, at least regarding the split-up of the sentence.

Sieburth's "sobering" is crap, IMO, because n?chtern is not (er)n?chternd. It's just a different word. It doesn't mean sobering, it means sober. This change changes a good deal of the interpretation of this short and dense poem.

In English, we tend to use "my", "your" , etc., with parts of the body. And we make the heads plural if there is more than one swan. So I prefer "dip your heads" to the rather German-influenced "dip the head".

Not that easy. It is important that it's singular. BUt the translation loses much, anyway. The German poem connotes, as (I think) Peter Szondi has shown, Christ (O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden, how's that song called in English anyway?). Is head the only English word possible? H?lderlin could have used Kopf. He didn't.

"Tunken". My dictionary says it can be used when you dip or dunk a piece of bread in your tea. So I think that Constantine's "plunge" is too energetic.

It is maybe a bit too energetic, but the word tunken has used to encompass much more than it does today. Is that how you translate? Using modern dictionaries to translate older texts? It used to be far more energetic (boyish games of dunking the other in the water, arguably energetic and even violent, used to be described with tunken sometimes. I dimly remember a passage in Anton Reiser, for instance), so Constantine isn't very wrong. And his version imitates, most importantly, the sound pattern. trunken/tunken with drunk/plunge. Not perfect but way better than drunk/dip. This makes Constantine's version superior to the other two.




(comments embedded in the quote in red)

[Eric]

The point I was making about the first stanza was that there are two main parts, whatever grammatical term you want to use: the first three lines and the last four. Because of all the commas and no full-stops or semicolons, you have to read the stanza carefully to understand it, unless you are a native-speaker, or were born in the late 18th century.

Constantine is blurring the use of two distinct words, "graceful" and "gracious". You can't blur that distinction just to maintain the sound. "Allowing for both" runs the risk of creating vague doggerel.

I'll accept Mirabell's distinction between "ern?chternd" and "n?chtern" and his verdict: crap. My own German wasn't good enough to get the exact nuance. We non-native-speakers can fall into such traps as thinking anything ending in an "-n" is the infinitive of a verb. You would think, however, that people that dare to publish translations would have enough German to identify such distinctions.

I am aware, from the Dutch language, that "kop" is used for animal heads, "hoofd" for human ones. So I understand what Mirabell is driving at. Who is doing the "dunking"? "Tunkt ihr..." means what, precisely? As you are a native speaker, Mirabell, you could do a staright, no frills, prose translation of the first stanza, to show the rest of us the syntax. The English words of the phrase you refer to are "O, sacred head sore wounded..." which is the beginning of a hymn (i.e Christian song) whose tune we no doubt nicked from the Germans, as with most hymn tunes.

"To dunk" (sic) is only really used in English for the gentle dipping of bread or cake into tea or coffee, maybe not the ideal word. I've seen swans sticking their heads into the water, and it is an elegant, if quick, movement. But "pop" and "stick" are too colloquial, while "dip" implies a slower, more languid movement.

Mirabell brings up an interesting point: using modern dictionaries for old texts. I once used an 18th century Swedish-English dictionary to get the right feel for some quote. So the true H?lderlin devotee should indeed get hold of, or consult, older dictionaries to identify where the German has shifted in meaning, however subtly.

I too found Constantine's version irritating for some reason. Why he, for example, translates "wenn es Winter ist" as "where in winter", I am not sure.

Omo uses the rather uncomfortably archa?c phrase "woe is me", which also jars. Anything with "oh" or "ah" is better. I think that even at the end of the 18th century "woe is me" would have been regarded as archa?c or arch.

"Shade" can have the connotation of the ghost of a dead person in mythological terms. So for the bisyllabic "Schatten" I wonder whether the use "shadows" isn't better, if you mean the physical thing. Only Omo used "shadow".

I note the word "Fahnen". Is this an old word for a weathervane, or are they just banners? The translations here are banners, weathercocks and weathervanes (x2). These are very different things: weathercocks or -vanes tell you the way the wind is blowing, banners are a badge to tell people who you are. Which is it here? "Klirren" is tricky, as it is surely associated with loose window panes, "clinking" or similar. Weathercocks move silently, whilst banners flap.

Finally, I note Mirabell's mention of the poem being 'dense". This is often the charm and point of poetry, as opposed to discursive prose, where everything is set out in dozens of sentences. Concision is one of the mainstays of poetry, though for instance neither Edmund Spenser nor Walt Whitman practised the art of concentrated expression.

[jsieg]

I am new to this list and have read with interest the discussion and examples of translations of "Half of Life." I attempted one myself some time ago, as a speaker of German and English, but not a Lit expert. It seemed important to me to preserve the simplicity and starkness of the poem, as well as its rhythm, to the extent possible.


Half of Life



With yellow pears
And full of the wild roses
Land hangs into the lake.
You graceful swans,
And drunk of kisses
Dip your heads
Into the holy sober water


Woe to me! Where will I take
The flowers once it's winter,
And where the sunshine,
And shadow of the earth?
The walls stand
Speechless and cold, in the wind
Clatter the vanes.




In contrast, there is an additional version on the web by one John Fraser, a professor of literature, that embodies rather poor choices and, in my view, indicates the dismal condition of North American translations from the German today.






The Half of Life

With yellow pears the country,
Brimming with wild roses,
Hangs into the lake,
You gracious swans,
And drunk with kisses
Your heads you dip
Into the holy lucid water.

Where, ah where shall I find,
When winter comes, the flowers,
And where the sunshine
And shadows of the earth?
Walls stand
Speechless and cold, in the wind
The weathervanes chatter.


(John Fraser)

[john h]

I like translation two the best. For me a poem has to make literal sense and that translation achieves that best for me.

[Mirabell]

I still think that of the translations presented here, Constantines is the best by a very wide margin.

[beelzebubbles]

I still think that of the translations presented here, Constantines is the best by a very wide margin.

While Constantine's version is more accessible Michael Hamburger's has more movement and a musical feel to it. Just listen to the placement of the stresses.

[Mirabell]

While Constantine's version is more accessible Michael Hamburger's has more movement and a musical feel to it. Just listen to the placement of the stresses.


Uh. Constantine's is closest to H?lderlin. By a wide margin. And the poem itself (H?lderlin's) has considerably LESS of a "musical feel to it" than Hamburger's.

[beelzebubbles]

Uh. Constantine's is closest to H?lderlin. By a wide margin. And the poem itself (H?lderlin's) has considerably LESS of a "musical feel to it" than Hamburger's.

You mean it's an improvement on the original. :p

Just kidding.

Still I like the Hamburger version better and as I don't know German, I only have the other English language versions for comparison and the movement and music of Hamburger's version work for me. I am just answering the question to the best of my limited ability.

[jsieg]

I think this thread needs to go a little beyond liking or disliking this or that translation. Some real work is required to get to a better rendering of the original.


I compliment Omo for his/her effort to start out with a literal translation; that's where the work begins.


Holderlin says, ?holy sober? water, not ?hallowed, sober,? ?sobering holy,? or ?holy lucid? water.


Holderlin says, ?woe . . .,? not ?but oh,? ?ah,? or ?alas.? This is the outcry, the wail of Greek tragedy that Holderlin knew so well. Half of his life was over.


And if Holderlin wanted to say, ?weathervanes? he would have said ?weathervanes.? When I first read the poem I was leaning toward flags or banners, as Omo has it. There is that (untranslatable) ?klirring? of patriotic symbols in the winter storm that sends chills down your spine. I settled on ?vanes? as the less determined, but would reconsider.


So let's look at the newest translation, by Chernoff and Hoover (2008):


Half of Life


Weighed with yellow pears
And full of wild roses,
The land flows into the lake,
Drunk with kisses,
You lovely swans
Dip your heads
Into calm and holy water.


But, oh, where shall I find flowers
When winter is here, and where
The sunshine,
And earth's shadows?
The walls stand
Speechless and cold, in wind
The weathervanes clatter.




In my humble opinion, this version is rather lame. It's a sparse, totally modernist rendering at a time when many classics are being retranslated in exciting new ways. What was unique about Holderlin as a classic is that he broke with conventions, especially as he was approaching his alleged insanity. In this our crazy age, we should be able to relate to that.

[beelzebubbles]

jseig, why did you choose the verb 'take' where others chose 'find' or 'come by'? I know it's the direct translation, but it doesn't give you the sense of taking the flowers to a place rather than taking them from one?

[Mirabell]

jseig, why did you choose the verb 'take' where others chose 'find' or 'come by'? I know it's the direct translation, but it doesn't give you the sense of taking the flowers to a place rather than taking them from one?

it's not even the direct translation, if you consider the whole phrase. "wo(her) nehm ich" is more than just "nehm". I think 'take' is not bad, it's wrong. Again, Constantine's choice with "come by" is, of all the proffered versions, the best, I think. The most direct, too.

[Diotima]

The Neckar


By Friedrich Holderlin




My heart awakened to life in your valleys,
Your waves played around me.
And all of the fair hills that know you,
Wayfarer, are known to me as well.

On those peaks the winds from the sky
Relieved me from pains of bondage,
And silver-blue waves shone forth from the valley,
Like the joy of life pouring out from a chalice.

Mountain springs hurried down to you,
My heart with them, and you took us along
To the quietly splendid Rhine, down
To its cities and pleasant islands.

The world seems to me yet beautiful, and my eyes
Search out with desire the charms of the earth,
To golden Paktolos, to Smyrna's shores,
To Ilion's woods. How I'd like to

Go ashore at Sunium, and ask for the silent road
To your pillars, Olympia! Before age
And storm winds bury you as well
In the ruins of Athens' temples,

Along with the statues of its gods. For you
Have long stood alone, pride of a world
That no longer exists. And the beautiful
Islands of Ionia, where sea air

Cools the hot shores and rushes through the woods
Of laurel, when the sun warms the grapevines,
And, oh, where golden autumn changes
The sighs of the poor people into songs,

When the pomegranate ripens, when the orange trees
Nod in a green night, and the gum trees drip
Resin, and drums and cymbals resound
To labyrinthine dances.

Perhaps someday my guardian deity will bring me
To these islands, but even then my thoughts
Would remain loyal to the Neckar
With its lovely meadows and pastoral shores.

[jsieg]

I agree with Beelzebubbles and Mirabell, and stand corrected.

[ned]

Hello, new member here. Although German is not my 1st language I find this poem prettty straightforward. I'm struggling though, with Hoelderlin's "Lebenslauf", which I may use (in English translation, obviously) at a memorial service for a friend. Anybody know of translations of this poem, discussions of it, or anything else relevant?

TIA, ned

H?lderlin - Gedichte: Lebenslauf (http://www.textlog.de/17848.html)

[JTolle]

Anybody know of translations of this poem?

H?lderlin - Gedichte: Lebenslauf (http://www.textlog.de/17848.html)

I've looked through the indexes of Sieburth's translation "Hymns and Fragments", Hamburger's "Selected Poems and Fragments", and Nick Hoff's "Odes and Elegies" where I suspected it would be, but I found the poem listed in none of these books.

It may be in another collection that I don't have access to, but if you're speaking at a memorial service and you can't get a clean translation of that poem, Hoff's "Odes and Elegies" might be a place to find something as fitting.

[Mirabell]

I find this poem prettty straightforward.

I don't. Actually, throughout literary history, people have been puzzled and overwhelmed by the poem. Borchardt said that it was actually fragments of a bigger poem and rearranged the lines, Dilthey just mumbled something and hid in a corner, his early editors thought that this poem belonged to the mad period. I think it's an extraordinarily difficult poem

[lenz]

I like the Sieburth. It makes the most sense to me and is the most natural sounding. The others have an awkwardness that sounds unsure and compromised.

[Omo]

I like the Sieburth. It makes the most sense to me and is the most natural sounding. The others have an awkwardness that sounds unsure and compromised.

I also like his' best. :)
I guess it has to do with the other two understanding the poem a bit better, and then not being able to re-invent it in English. Thus in itself Sieburth's can stand alone easiest.

[hdw]

(comments embedded in the quote in red)

O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden = O sacred head sore wounded.

Harry (who has sung many a mass in amateur choirs)

[Mirabell]

I like the Sieburth. It makes the most sense to me and is the most natural sounding. The others have an awkwardness that sounds unsure and compromised.

It's also the one that has least to do with the original poem. "sobering" is the low point, but it's a dire performance in other places, too. If the task is a transference of meaning in any meaningful way, this is the worst of the bunch. As a separate poem, yes, it sounds nice.

By the way, the poem, the original, read to its contemporaries similarly odd. As I said, there is a long discussion whether there are stanzas between stanza 1 and 2 missing, or whether even the individual lines of the two stanzas are fragments of a longer poem.

[ned]

I don't. Actually, throughout literary history, people have been puzzled and overwhelmed by the poem. Borchardt said that it was actually fragments of a bigger poem and rearranged the lines, Dilthey just mumbled something and hid in a corner, his early editors thought that this poem belonged to the mad period. I think it's an extraordinarily difficult poem
Well, Hoelderlin isn't exactly "Die Maerchen der Bruedern Grimm"; The only easier one I can think of is the early work "Die Eichbaeume." Certainly much easier than "Lebenslauf."

BTW I liked the Carradine best too. But I'm prejudiced because (if I'm thinking of the right person) I'm amazed at his translations of Rilke. But I obviously seldom have a reason to read German poetry in translation.

[Mirabell]

Well, Hoelderlin isn't exactly "Die Maerchen der Bruedern Grimm"; The only easier one I can think of is the early work "Die Eichbaeume." Certainly much easier than "Lebenslauf."

If you think it's easy I think you haven't understood it. I know someone at my university who's writing her dissertation (partly) on a defense of the idea that stanza 1 and 2 are connected, that this poem makes coherent sense, which is far from an accepted fact.

[Omo]

It's also the one that has least to do with the original poem. [...]

You are such a Fachidiot, it amazes me every time. ;)
Do you notice how you only look for meaning in the words directly, in the way words are built etc? There is also meaning in form though, and this poem is partly so amazing because it is vollkommen in this while still leaving an exit door. And indeed it leaves this exit in many, many ways - which is why it is daring, continually daring. Sieburth's translation reproduces this Vollkommenheit in itself best, but lacks e.g. in the aspects you pointed out.

[ned]

If you think it's easy I think you haven't understood it.


Na es ist doch Dichtung! Verstehen ist nicht so wichtig als Gefuelle und Mitleid zu erwachen. Diese Gedichte errinert mich an des Rilkes "Herbstttag." Ich verstehe eigentich nicht, warum Blaetter "treiben" und nicht getriebt werden, aber dies ist mir sehr bedeutungsvoll.

[Mirabell]

Na es ist doch Dichtung! Verstehen ist nicht so wichtig als Gefuelle und Mitleid zu erwachen. Diese Gedichte errinert mich an des Rilkes "Herbstttag." Ich verstehe eigentich nicht, warum Blaetter "treiben" und nicht getriebt werden, aber dies ist mir sehr bedeutungsvoll.

Du hast ganz recht, du "verstehst eigentlich nicht". Rilke ist ein dunkler Rauner, dessen Werk tats?chlich in der Hauptsache sentimental ist. H?lderlin hingegen ist ein brillianter Denker, dessen Werk von hohem intellektuellem Wert ist, er verhandelt literarische, theologische, philosophische und politische Positionen seiner Zeit in seinen Gedichten. Ein Vergleich mit Rilke ist nahezu beleidigend.

[ned]

Du hast ganz recht, du "verstehst eigentlich nicht". Rilke ist ein dunkler Rauner, dessen Werk tats?chlich in der Hauptsache sentimental ist. H?lderlin hingegen ist ein brillianter Denker, dessen Werk von hohem intellektuellem Wert ist, er verhandelt literarische, theologische, philosophische und politische Positionen seiner Zeit in seinen Gedichten. Ein Vergleich mit Rilke ist nahezu beleidigend.

Entshuldigung, beleidigen will ich ihnen nicht. Erklaren Sie mir aber bitte, ob das Dutzen hier normal ist.

[Mirabell]

Entshuldigung, beleidigen will ich ihnen nicht. Erklaren Sie mir aber bitte, ob das Dutzen hier normal ist.


Da man sich hier mit dem Vornamen anredet, nahm ich das an. Ich kann Sie aber gerne siezen, wenn Ihnen das lieber ist.

[Mirabell]

You are such a Fachidiot, it amazes me every time. ;)
Do you notice how you only look for meaning in the words directly, in the way words are built etc? There is also meaning in form though, and this poem is partly so amazing because it is vollkommen in this while still leaving an exit door. And indeed it leaves this exit in many, many ways - which is why it is daring, continually daring. Sieburth's translation reproduces this Vollkommenheit in itself best, but lacks e.g. in the aspects you pointed out.


Actually, I'm not sure it's vollkommen. I think it's an extraordinarily difficult poem, and hinges on every single detail. It's insanely hard to interpret properly, and words like heilign?chtern are of central importance. THE POEM MEANS SOMETHING ELSE IF YOU CHANGE THE GODDAMN WORD to "ern?chternd". I have a lot of sympathy for the notion that this poem is just the fragment of a larger poem. In any case, you can't exchange its words for words that mean something extremely different and change the meaning of the poem.

[lenz]

I don't.[think it's straightforward] Actually, throughout literary history, people have been puzzled and overwhelmed by the poem. Borchardt said that it was actually fragments of a bigger poem and rearranged the lines, Dilthey just mumbled something and hid in a corner, his early editors thought that this poem belonged to the mad period. I think it's an extraordinarily difficult poem

Mirabell, why did you take this survey to see which versions we like, only to tell those of us you disagree with that we are wrong, even though you say it's so difficult that "people" (meaning critics, I assume) have been "puzzled and overwhelmed" by it "throughout literary history?"
Your survey was answered. Take the information and make what you will of it. There's no need to start a fight.

[Mirabell]

Mirabell, why did you take this survey to see which versions we like, only to tell those of us you disagree with that we are wrong, even though you say it's so difficult that "people" (meaning critics, I assume) have been "puzzled and overwhelmed" by it "throughout literary history?"
Your survey was answered. Take the information and make what you will of it. There's no need to start a fight.


What? I didn't take a survey? You must have mixed me up with someone else? :confused::confused::confused:

[Omo]

Actually, I'm not sure it's vollkommen. I think it's an extraordinarily difficult poem, and hinges on every single detail. It's insanely hard to interpret properly, and words like heilign?chtern are of central importance. THE POEM MEANS SOMETHING ELSE IF YOU CHANGE THE GODDAMN WORD to "ern?chternd". I have a lot of sympathy for the notion that this poem is just the fragment of a larger poem. In any case, you can't exchange its words for words that mean something extremely different and change the meaning of the poem.

This is exactly what I was saying as well. I never disagreed with your analysis, you are very good at that, it's just that we cannot only analyse it from one point, which is what you are doing constantly. Calm down please, no need to get angry. :) (Let me guess: you'd greatly prefer the term nerd to Fachidiot, wouldn't you? :D)
It is vollkommen because it is both un- & vollkommen at the same time, i.e. it's vollkommen in a higher sense, a synthesis took place, and exactly this synthesis takes place in many other regards as well.
When you say this poem is just the fragment of a larger poem, then you are right in the sense that H?lderlin inherited Greekdom to such an extent that indeed this poem was just a moment for him. This poem is the fragment of his life.

[Cleanthess]

I don't (find this poem straighforward). Actually, throughout literary history, people have been puzzled and overwhelmed by the poem. Borchardt said that it was actually fragments of a bigger poem and rearranged the lines, Dilthey just mumbled something and hid in a corner, his early editors thought that this poem belonged to the mad period. I think it's an extraordinarily difficult poem

On the Holderlin section of his Mephistopheles, Radacanu proposes a different interpretation of Half of Life. (I've spoofed about Radacanu somewhere else on the forum).

The key to Radacanu's interpretation is the drunk kissing swan. A swan swimming in a lake with his head bent down and about to dip it in the water would seem to be kissing the reflected swan below. But then Radacanu points out that this poem is about oppositions and contrasts the holy sober purity of the water with the godly enrapturing lewd swan Zeus kissing Leda.

This is a classic motive of painting, just do a google search for Michelangelo and Leda, Veronese and Leda, Leda Efwe Ornikleios, or visit the ledayelcisne blog at blogspot and see for yourself. I cannot link to those images because they are too powerful. They were so offending that the Michelangelo painting as well as the Leonardo depiction of this myth were burned by the Church and only survive in copies and sketches. Amazingly, even the Klimt painting of Leda and the Swan was destroyed and only black and white photographs are left.

Radacanu reads the first stanza of the poem as a depiction of youthful sexual desire and its extinction with old age and how the half point of life is the point were the ebb starts. The second stanza is a lot more complicated despite its apparent clarity; Radacanu says that the second stanza is opaque at best, frozen icy at worst.

I think that the reading of the Swan as being a depiction of Christ is based upon the medieval association of Christ with the swan who wounds his own chest to feed his blood to his brood. Interestingly enough Marcelo Bordese Leda (google it) mixes both interpretations into one of the most disturbing and unforgettable paintings I've seen.

Finally let me mention that Uhlman's masterpiece Reunion chooses exactly Halfte des Lebens as the crowning glory of the German language and this makes it the more painful when the main character later in the novel (around the time of his own half of life) renounces the German language and all things German, even the memory of his best German friend.