What does /lit/ think of Heine? Anyone read him?
Thinking of getting a copy of his poems.
Also how does he compare to Hölderlin?
/lit/ Germans help me out
>>8243403
I've only read Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen, which I enjoyed a lot.
I should probably read more at some point.
German here, Heine is my personal favorite. He's witty and funny but can be pretty romantic as well, but not in a faggy way. Hoelderlin is a whole different thing but I like him for his romanticism. My favorite poem would be "Der Mensch", I listen to it all the time when I'm in the metro or bus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSvYdmePEJA
(read by Christian Brueckner, De Niro's german voice)
>>8243654
Thanks! Heine definitely is very funny. I like his poem "Zu fragmentarisch ist Welt und Leben?":
Life and the world’s too fragmented for me!
A German professor can give me the key.
He puts life in order with skill magisterial,
Builds a rational system for better or worse;
With nightcap and dressing-gown scraps for material
He chinks up the holes in the universe.
Apparently he was a huge influence on Nietzsche, and also one of my favourite English poets A.E. Housman.
>>8243403
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Heine is definitely a very skilled poet. Most noticeable, as >>8243654 pointed out is his wit. His poesm differ considerably from his romantic predecessors in terms of language. He rids himself of the romantic "Chiffren" (that's what theorists of romanticism called tropes that constitute the thematic cosmos of romanticism, e.g. the atmospheric sound of a flowing river or rustling leaves (Rauschen) which hints at the experience of god manifest in nature, a bit like pantheism) and at his best manages to write in very simple but effective terms, but at times sounds a bit too conversational or even banal for my taste. His use of meter is usually quite refreshing when compared to the imitation of "folk" poetry that was a programmatic cornerstone of german romanticism, but sometimes sounds a bit spontaneous and ironic, as if somebody had decided to write some sort of mock poem. I particularly like his metaphors and the actual ideas behind his poems, moreso than his choice of wording. As for Hölderlin, I've only read Hyperion and don't remember much of it, so I can't help you there.
I also recommend listening to the Dichterliebe cycle (that's Heine set to music) as well as Liederkreis (Eichendorff, my favourite german romantic poet) by Schumann.
>>8243728
Thanks a lot, that's very interesting.
His essays on Shakespeare's Heroines are great.
>I grow desperate when I reflect that after all [Shakespeare] is an Englishman, belonging to that most odious nation which God in his anger created.
>It is an odious nation, a joyless country, stiff, old-fashioned, selfish, narrow, English! Father Ocean would long since have swallowed up this nation, had he not feared the sea-sickness which might thereupon ensue . . . this nation, grey and yawning as a monster, breathing forth naught but suffocation and deadly tedium, which will probably eventually hang itself by means of a huge cable.
https://archive.org/details/cu31924013360783
