Customer Reviews (1)

Hesse - the Bearer of Human Longing
The collection - to my philosophical taste - starts out slow: poems of beauty. But after a few pages: bam! - poems of meaning, angst, metaphysical longing.I am not sure if this thematic trajectory is an artifact of how the collection was collated or if this trajectory parallels development of Hesse's psyche.I've seen a similar kind of thematic arc in other poets (in Esenin, for example).

In sum, these poems are a "backstage pass" into Hesse. As for the edition: I haven't had a chance to see the 2008 one - but this one, 1970, has both German and English - and German, whether you read it or not, provides - font-wise - an a propos goth-y, existentially angst-y, visually cameral background to the English translation.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of EATING THE MOMENT: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time (New Harbinger, 2008)
www.eatingthemoment.com ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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Siddhartha is an allegorical novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of a boy known as Siddhartha from the Indian Subcontinent during the time of the Buddha.
The book, Hesse's ninth novel, was written in German, in a simple yet powerful and lyrical style. It was first published in 1922, after Hesse had spent some time in India in the 1910s. It was published in the U.S. in 1951 and became influential during the 1960s. Hesse dedicated Siddhartha to Romain Rolland, "my dear friend".
The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language, siddha (achieved) + artha (meaning or wealth). The two words together mean "he who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals". The Buddha's name, before his renunciation, was Prince Siddhartha Gautama. In this book, the Buddha is referred to as "Gotama". ... Read more

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Buddha's doppleganger
I read this book before I ventured out into the real world, and I read it again many years after I had returned from that world. After I read it, I wanted to kick myself for not learning more from it the first time.... But then, that is also covered in this story, Siddhartha's father could not protect him from the world, nor could Siddhartha protect his own son when the time came. You've got to go forth and learn these lessons yourself. It is the same archetypical patterns, with variations, over and over.

I remember that when I first read this story it confused me that the Buddha and Siddhartha were two separate persons. Then I came to realise the truth of archetypes, and immortal paterns that resonate in many different bodies at the same time- all seemingly separate, but all really sharing the same great life. All ultimately flowing together to form the great river of life. ... Read more

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Product Description
The great German poet Friedrich Hoelderlin (1770-1843) won the love and care of his younger contemporary, the rebellious writer Wilhelm Waiblinger (1804-1830). This love found durable expression in Waiblinger's passionate novel Phaethon, translated in the present volume. It is based, in part, on Hoelderlin's own Hyperion, in which the protagonist claims that We are like fire, an assertion substantiated in Waiblinger s work. In Phaethon, the flames of the sun, youth, eros, art and the ideal of liberty incandescently burn. This story, whose eponymous hero recollects Hoelderlin as Waiblinger knew and imagined him, preserves among its pages several of Hoelderlin's most famous verse fragments. Phaethon appeared in 1823, when Hoelderlin was considered mad. Waiblinger scrupulously contests this verdict in his circumstantial essay 'Friedrich Hoelderlin's Life, Poetry and Madness.' Published in 1831, after Waiblinger's death, this essay is also included in the present volume. Waiblinger himself attracted the astringent affection of a later German writer, Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), whose 'In Pressel's Gardenhouse' (1914) depicts the conduct of Hoelderlin, Waiblinger and the poet Eduard Moerike (1804-1875) among the vineyards above Tuebingen. This story celebrates and indicts Waiblinger for his kindness and his impatience, in vivid relation to the figure of Hoelderlin. Hesse's story constitutes an act of literary criticism; he consents to step from behind the storyteller's mask in his essay, 'On Hoelderlin' (1924). These documents, rendered elegantly by Eric Miller, form a picture of greatness and of the reciprocity sometimes possible between the young and the estranged of an older generation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The incandescent burn of Being
The great German poet Friedich Holderlin won the love and care of his younger contemporary , the rebellious writer WIlhelm Waiblinger (1804-1830). This love found durable expression in Waiblinger's passionate novel Phaeton, translated in the present volume. Phaeton is based on Holderlin's Hyperion, in which the protagonist claims that "We are like fire," an assertion substantiated in Waiblinger's work. In Phaeton, the flames of the sun, youth, eros, art and the ideal of liberty incandescently burn. This story, whose eponymous hero recollects Holderlin as Waiblinger knew him and imagined him, preserves among its pages some of the best of Holderlin's verse fragments. Phaeton appeared in 1823, when Holderlin was considered mad. Waiblinger scrupulously contests this verdict in his circumstantial essay "Friedrich Holderlin's Life Poetry and Madness" - here also included. Waiblinger also attraceted the astringent affection of a late German writer Herman Hesse, whose "In Pressel's Gardenhouse" depicts the conduct of Holderlin, Waiblinger and the poet Eduard Morike among the vieyards above Tuningen. his story celebrates and indicts Waiblinger for his kindness and impatience, in vivid relation to the poet Holderlin. A second contribution of Hesse in this book is the essay "On Holderlin" where the fervor of the estranged, the exiled and the mad harmoniously wield a critical elegy that summons the storm that rages within the artist's seeming equanimity. The appeal of this volume is undeniable and the literary merits considerate, but the wisdom of its madness makes these translations by Eric Miller essential to any library devoted to Holderlin, Hesse or GErman Literature. Incandescent! ... Read more