tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post5981668880138261243..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Hölderlin: "Reif sind..." (Ripe are the fruits)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-87380872872880080172011-07-13T06:36:36.864-07:002011-07-13T06:36:36.864-07:00Tom,
Leaden skies indeed -- bricks wet, drops of ...Tom,<br /><br />Leaden skies indeed -- bricks wet, drops of water on tips of leaves. . . . Holderlin would have thrived here. . . .STEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-699972279872595482011-07-12T18:33:20.129-07:002011-07-12T18:33:20.129-07:00Thank you Steve and Curtis, sorry to be a bit slow...Thank you Steve and Curtis, sorry to be a bit slow in replying (under the weather, as it were... perhaps appropriately in the present leaden weather).<br /><br />The reliefs provide rare images symbolically representing the central motifs of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which, true to their name, were always a closely-kept secret; but we do know that the presences of Persephone and Demeter were central. Hölderlin's poem also in its own way explores the ambiance of these Mysteries, I suspect. Rites of fertility and a poetic metaphysics of Earth, perhaps. The difficulty of the syntax is at the heart of things here, so I have attempted to retain it, tortuous as the attempt may seem. The paratax is, as Adorno suggests, essentially musical in structure, and as such (happily) beyond the realm of analysis.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-62437706182220773882011-07-12T04:02:03.174-07:002011-07-12T04:02:03.174-07:00I carried this around with me all day yesterday an...I carried this around with me all day yesterday and through the night, but it felt more like the poem and two images were following me around, subtly pushing me, pulling me , and sending me in certain directions I could easily process and others I couldn’t. I’m told that comparisons are invidious, but it reminded me (to the extent it reminded me of anything else) of Gene Clark’s song “Set You Free This Time.” When I studied ancient Greek art in art history graduate school, I wrote a paper about a carved stele depicting a seated woman, not dissimilar to these two reliefs. I cannot remember much about it, except that there was no mythological iconography. (I think it was a domestic scene; it might even have been associated with a grave.) What I remember strongly, however, were the various lines of direction and force coursing through the composition and how, like in these examples, they interacted with the transparent layers of carving.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-6436834483669262202011-07-11T07:35:16.126-07:002011-07-11T07:35:16.126-07:00Tom,
What a beautiful translation of this Holderl...Tom,<br /><br />What a beautiful translation of this Holderlin poem ! (Here is what happened when I read it: I was reading along, forgot that I'd read "Holderlin: Reif sind" and thus imagined/assumed that you had written it (and that made sense), and then reread it (aloud) and then saw "trans. TC" at the bottom of the page, goodness (!). And framed by those two pictures (followed by the Adorno). . . .<br /><br />"And always/ Toward unboundedness goes out longing."<br /><br />7.11<br /><br />grey white of fog against invisible top <br />of ridge, quail standing on pine branch<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> painting that had been, was<br /> such as other picture<br /><br /> cuts across color, as image<br /> which stops short, as<br /><br />grey white of fog against top of ridge,<br />shadowed green pine on tip of sandspitSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.com