Tuesday, April 16, 2024
As You Began, So You Remain
Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843), "The Rhine," lines 46-53 (tr. Christopher Middleton):
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A riddle it is, whateverQuoting these lines, Gilbert Norwood, Pindar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1945 = Sather Classical Lectures, 19), p. 232, n. 2, says:
Springs from the pure source. Even song
May hardly reveal it. For
As you began so you remain
And though compulsions leave their mark,
And upbringing, birth performs
The most, and the ray of light encountering
The newborn being.
Ein Rätsel ist Reinentsprungenes. Auch
Der Gesang kaum darf es enthüllen. Denn
Wie du anfingst, wirst du bleiben,
So viel auch wirket die Not,
Und die Zucht, das meiste nämlich 50
Vermag die Geburt,
Und der Lichtstrahl, der
Dem Neugebornen begegnet.
In at least one original poem (Der Rhein, 46 ff.) he uses not only the Pindaric tone but also one of the Pindaric beliefs.
