Hartmut Hecker : Diotima

Friedrich Hölderlin: Diotima
(Younger version)

Do you shine down like before
Golden day! and sprout me
The flowers of the song again
Breathing on to you?
How different it has become!
Some things that I mournfully avoided
Voices in friendly chords
Now in my joy song
And with every strike of the hour
I am wonderfully reminded
Silent days of childhood
Ever since I found you, the one.

Diotima! noble life!
Sister, holy related to me!
Before I give you my hand
I've known you far away
Back then, when I was dreaming
From me from the bright day,
Under the trees of my garden
A satisfied boy, lay
There in quiet pleasure and beauty
May my soul began
Whispered like zephyr tones,
Divine! your mind at me.

Oh! and there, like a legend,
Every good god faded away
Since I was heaven's days
Starving, like a blind man, stood
As the burden of time bowed me
And my life, cold and pale,
Longing already leaned down
In the dead, silent realm:
I wish more often, the blind one
Wanderer, this one to me
To find the picture of my heart
By the shadows or here.

Now! I found you!
More beautiful than I saw anticipating
Hoping in the celebration hours
Dear muse! are you there;

. . .
Oh! to your silent beauty
Blessed face!
Heart! of your sky tones
Is not used to mine;
But your melodies
Cheer up my mind,
That dreary dreams flee,
And I myself am someone else;
Am I chosen for that?
I to your high rest
So born to light and lust
Divinely happy! like you -

Like your father and mine
The one in serene majesty
Over his oak grove
There in light heights
Like him in the ocean waves
Where the cool depth is blue
Rising from the bow of heaven,
Looking down clearly and quietly:
So I want from the heights of the gods,
Newly consecrated in beautiful happiness,
Happy to sing and see
Now back to mortals.