Who would have thought I had anything in common with Pope Francis? The new pope is more comfortable speaking Spanish and Italian, but in his first address as pope he included a German phrase: "Es ist ruhig, das Alter, und fromm" ("Old age is quiet and devout.") This turns out to be a line from a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) (a poem to his grandmother: Meiner verehrungswürdigen Großmutter Zu ihrem 72. Geburtstag).
In his book recently released in German - Mein Leben. Mein Weg - Francis talks about a few of his favorite things, including his favorite poet - Friedrich Hölderlin (number two on my list of the Top Ten German Poets). At first glance, Hölderlin might seem an odd choice for a pope, since the poet found more inspiration in the Greek gods than in the Bible. But Hölderlin found transcendence in nature, and his exquisite verse is always seeking to express the sense of divinity in the here and now.
So let us honor Pope Francis and mark the end of National Poetry Month with one of Hölderlin's shortest and most beautiful poems: Hälfte des Lebens ("Half of Life" or "Life's Midpoint"). Here the first stanza, brimming with natural beauty and life is contrasted with the second, where the lyric I stands alone in a harsh manmade world of walls and weathervanes, where even his voice is taken from him ("sprachlos").
Hälfte des Lebens
Mit gelben Birnen hänget
Und voll mit wilden Rosen
Das Land in den See,
Ihr holden Schwäne,
Und trunken von Küssen
Tunkt ihr das Haupt
Ins heilignüchterne 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.(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.)
Transl. by Michael Hamburger
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