Poems in Terzinen

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The poems in Terzinen are a group of four poems by Hugo von Hofmannsthal from the summer of 1894, often mistakenly named after the title of one of these poems "On Transience".

Emergence

The creation of the four terzinen poems “On Transience”, “The Hours! where we hit the bright blue ... "," We are made of stuff like that to dream ... "and" Sometimes women who are not beloved come ... "is closely related to Josephine von Wertheimstein and their nieces Marie and Nelly von Gomperz. The acquaintance and subsequent friendship with these women took place after Felix von Oppenheimer introduced Hofmannsthal to the salon of Sophie von Todesco (née Gomperz) in spring 1892.

In July 1892 Hofmannsthal received letters from Marie, in which she describes impressions of a girl who was living with foster parents. A year later she also wrote to him about the girl's death, again using metaphors and pictorial descriptions to depict the sight of the girl. First, the reports about the girl Addah flowed into sketches for a prose poem “Die kleine Annerl”, then in July 1893 they were converted into sketches for a story “The Story of Little Anna” and finally culminated in the draft and the on July 30, 1894 Fair copy of the Terzinen “The hours! where we hit the bright blue… ”.

Three days earlier, on July 27th, 1894, the Terzinen poem "We are made of stuff like that to dreams ..." came to the fair copy. This line, also noted by Hofmannsthal as the motto for the poem, comes from Shakespeare's play " The Tempest ". There it is Prospero who has to say the words "We are such stuff / As dreams are made on ..." in the fourth act. Furthermore, for the creation process of “We are made of such stuff…” from the letters from Marie mentioned above, a passage from July 19, 1893 is noteworthy: “(…) she died on 5th March, (…) three days earlier she visited Nelly with the people where she lived, she was dressed for holidays in the small vegetable garden on a bench under a small, richly laden cherry tree, (...) is said to have looked unspeakably beautiful. Nelly wished for a really great artist to capture this impression. ”Hofmannsthal notes for himself:“ The death of little Addah in Marie's letter: freezing, with transfigured, feverish eyes in the white confirmation dress under the fruit-laden cherry tree; »This is how one should paint the saints« "and" Little Addah. Watering the grass with devotion to the small garden, the sap of life escaping from it rises up the cherry tree ”. We learn of a further source of inspiration from Hofmannsthal's notes from March 1894, in which he records thoughts as a result of the influence of Klinger 's etchings: “(...) being weaves its immense fabric through us (...) The Chinese bell tree ( Siesta von Klinger ) Symbol for God knows something, works in my soul like the ghost hand in a locked room (...) ”.

There is also a sheet of notes from this period, which (along with further notes on “We are made of such stuff ...”) are assigned as a prose concept to the tercine poem “Sometimes women who are not beloved come ...”. At the end of April 1894 Hofmannsthal noted: "I The evening plain needs murmuring, flashing water: II Heart needs a woman: III Love needs (...) ideal dreams I, II, III, nested states". The prose draft for the first two verses of this poem was recorded shortly beforehand on a note: "(...) Michi the unloved, who comes back in a dream as a little girl, unspeakably charming". (Michi is the sister of a childhood friend of Hofmannsthal.) The date of the fair copy is July 25, 1894. Hofmannsthal gives a retrospective explanation of this concept for outsiders, so to speak, almost two weeks after the group of Terzinen was completed: “( ...) reflecting terzines with such evening lighting (reflecting ponds, black trees) as everyone paints it now ”.

July 25, 1894 is also considered the fair copy date for "On Transience". “52 terzines is all I've done in the Fusch”, Hofmannsthal wrote to Hermann Bahr at the beginning of August . [The sum of all verses in these four poems is 52.] Hofmannsthal drove to Bad Fusch on July 14th, after paying a visit to Villa Wertheimstein in Döbling on the same day. At this time Josephine von Wertheimstein was already dying; he had a two-year close friendship with her. In the weeks before her death, he spent many days in Döbling, where he worked as a writer during the breaks for those who had meanwhile fallen ill, and at the same time prepared himself for a university examination. The last time he saw her was on July 12th. Letters from Hofmannsthal from the days after the telegraphic news of his death on July 16 attest to the importance of this friendship. B .: “In this long pause lies for me the serious illness and the death of an old woman, a wonderful and beautiful and rare being, to whom I lost one of my closest, few friends, and a lot of sad and yet almost intoxicating reflections and increasing understanding of the wondrousness of all of our existence. ”The physical existence, which was only a few days ago, leads to the line“ I can still feel your breath on my cheeks… ”; Hofmannsthal headed this poem of tetras with "On transience". The following prose note may also be assigned to this poem: “We are no more directly one with our I since 10 years ago than with our mother's body. eternal physical continuity. Make it clear: we are one with everything that is and that has ever been, no secondary thing, nothing excluded. "

First release date

Hofmannsthal announced the appearance of these four poems to Hermann Bahr in a letter on August 8, 1894: "52 terzinen is all I have done in the Fusch, they will be in the next muse almanac." This project could not be realized. The three tercine poems “The hours! where we hit the bright blue ... "," Sometimes women who are not loved ... "and" We are made of stuff like that to dream ... "appeared in issue two of the magazine" Pan "under the pseudonym Loris and with the headline Terzinen. Before they appeared in print, Hofmannsthal read these poems aloud to Arthur Schnitzler himself on September 26, 1894 . “On Transience” appeared in March 1896 in the magazine “ Blätter für die Kunst ”.

Formal components

Although each of these four poems in Terzinen can also stand on its own, as a group (beyond the historical context) they contain formal connections that challenge us to look at them from the group. Hofmannsthal himself states a term known and defined in poetry (terzines) and a mathematical term (the number 52).

Mathematical framework

The number 52 is the sum total of the verses of these 4 poems. (The fact that he himself gave the number shows that the number of verses was of interest to him.) 52 (number of verses): 4 (number of poems) = 13 Two of the poems consist of 13 verses each, one of 10 (= 13 - 3) and one of 16 (= 13 + 3). The number 52 is 2 × 2 × 13 in the prime factorization . There are only two ways to combine two numbers into one number:

a) 2 × 2 = 4 ⇒ (2 × 2) × 13 = 4 × 13 = 52

b) 2 × 13 = 26 ⇒ 2 × (2 × 13) = 2 × 26 = 52

The number 26 corresponds to the number of letters in our alphabet. The number 13 multiplied by its own checksum is 52.

The expressiveness of the numerical ratios contained in these four poems in terzines leads to the result that this group of poems has a mathematical framework as a formal component. This is further corroborated by the fact that the sum of all syllables of the four poems together is 551, the cross sum of which in turn is the number 11 (see rhyme scheme, structure and cadence ).

Rhyme scheme, structure and cadences

The term Terzinen used in German-language poetry is based on the Italian original Terzarima , a rhyme scheme whose verses each consist of 11 syllables, based on iambic verse feet and metrically resulting in an iambic five- key. The rhyme scheme used [aba bcb cdc…]results in a three-part stanza form , which has a mathematical relationship between even-numbered and odd-numbered. At the time of the creation of the four poems of the Terzinen, the mere adaptation of the Italian models Dante and Petrarca had long since been history (→ Endecasilabo ) and the poetry of Terzinen had been expanded by the construction means of the 10-syllable verse due to linguistic structural characteristics; alternating use of 10- and 11-syllable rhymes was already a tradition.

Two of the poems (the two with an even number of verses) are each in one of the two traditional terzin forms: pure 11-syllable or alternating 11- and 10-syllable. The two 13-line poems, on the other hand, are more freely designed: "We are made of such stuff ..." has the rhyme scheme aba , bcb , cdc etc. throughout, the cadence, which in principle alternates, breaks with this principle in the second stanza ( whose verses contain all 10 syllables): after that the change is resumed.

“About Transience” contains a stanza of pure 11 syllables, followed by alternating cadences and is continued in pure 10 syllables. This is a break with tradition: while the outer verses of each stanza have a rhyme, the method of starting the rhyme in the middle line for the outer verse of the following stanza is not used. However, if one looks - starting with the twelfth line - “On Transience” from back to front, the rhyme scheme can be observed for three stanzas (line 11 ≙ line 9 ≙ line 7; line 8 ≙ line 6 ≙ line 4). Only the ratio of first and second verse escapes completely the traditional tercets scheme: Line 2 rhyme with line 5 and indicated by (in verse structure and rhyme) a real three-part periodicity on.

All four poems also have a separate final line: while the remaining three poems follow the terzinen rhyme scheme… yzy z , “Über Verbänlichkeit ” also breaks here and uses… yzy y . It should also be noted that a single verse of these four poems has eleven syllables and is simultaneously stressed on the last syllable (the last line of the 10-line poem).

The texts

About impermanence

I can still feel her breath on my cheeks:
How can it be that these days to come
are gone, gone forever, and completely gone?

This is a thing that no one can fully think of,
and much too horrific to complain:
that everything slips and flows past.

And that my own ego, not inhibited by anything,
slipped over from a small child,
like a dog, incredibly dumb and strange to me.

Then: that I was also a hundred years ago
And my ancestors, who in the shroud,
are related to me like my own hair,

As one with me as my own hair.

The hours! where we look at the bright blue ...

The hours! where we
stare at the bright blue of the sea ​​and understand death
so easily and solemnly and without horror,

Like little girls who look very pale,
with big eyes, and who are always cold,
looking silently before themselves one evening

And know that life now flows
quietly from its sleeping-potion limbs over
into trees and grass, and adorns itself with a faint smile,

Like a saint who sheds her blood

We're made of stuff like that ...

We're made of the stuff like this to dream,
And dreams so open our eyes,
like little children under cherry trees,

From its crown the pale gold barrel
The full moon rises through the great night.
... Our dreams do not appear otherwise.

Are there and live like a child who laughs,
no less big in floating up and down
As a full moon, waking up from the treetops.

The innermost is open to their weaving,
Like ghost hands in a locked space
they are in us and always have life.

And three are one: a person, a thing, a dream.

Sometimes unloved women come ...

Sometimes unloved women come towards
us in dreams as little girls
and are unspeakably touching to look at,

As if they
had walked with us on distant paths once in one evening,
while the tops move breathing,

And scent falls and night and fear,
and along the way, our way, the dark,
in the evening light the mute ponds shine,

And, mirror of our longing, sparkling dreamily,
And all the quiet words, all the floating of
the evening air and the first twinkling of the stars

The souls tremble sisterly and deeply
And are sad and full of triumphs
Before deep premonition that the great life

Understand and its glory and severity.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 228, Z28.
  2. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 231, line 1f and footnote 7.
  3. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 447, list11.
  4. ↑ http://www.navigare.de/hofmannsthal/todesco.htm Accessed: July 15, 2009
  5. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 242.
  6. ↑ Ellen Ritter (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume XXIX S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1978, p. 275, Z19.
  7. ↑ Ellen Ritter (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume XXIX S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1978, p. 397, Z27 and 398, Z4.
  8. ↑ Ellen Ritter (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume XXIX S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1978, p. 26.
  9. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, pp. 49, 242, 243, Z7f.
  10. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 238, Z19.
  11. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 240, Z25.
  12. ↑ Ellen Ritter (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume XXIX S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1978, p. 277, Z2ff.
  13. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 243, Z29ff.
  14. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 239, Z10.
  15. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 240, Z10ff.
  16. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 233, Z13ff.
  17. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 234.
  18. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 235ff.
  19. ^ A b c Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 228, Z34ff.
  20. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 226, Z15ff.
  21. ^ Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, p. 230, Z8.
  22. ↑ Digitized image of the original edition (Heidelberg University)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 15, 2009@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / diglit.ub.uni-heidelberg.de  
  23. ↑ see also the presentation on ritornello and terzine ( memento of the original of August 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 15, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lrz-muenchen.de

Remarks

  1. ↑ The Wikisource entry for this group of poems is based on the edition of poems Insel-Verlag 1922, which Hofmannsthal did not want to use for unknown reasons.

literature

  • Eugene Weber (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume I S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, ISBN 3-107-31501-X .
  • Ellen Ritter (Ed.) Hugo von Hofmannsthal Complete Works Critical Edition Volume XXIX S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1978, ISBN 3-107-31529-X .
  • Merckle: Merckle Lexicon. Developed according to the documents of the lexicon editors of the FA Brockhaus Wiesbaden publishing house . Lingen publishing house. Oldenburg Munich, 1973–1974

further reading

  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Letters 1890-1901 , Berlin 1935
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal - Leopold von Andrian, correspondence. Edited by Walter H. Perl , Frankfurt a. M. 1968
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal - Edgar Karg von Bebenburg, correspondence. Edited by Mary E. Gilbert , Frankfurt a. M. 1966
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal - Richard Beer-Hofmann, correspondence. Edited by Eugene Weber , Frankfurt a. M. 1972
  • Erwin Arndt: German verse theory. A demolition. 12th, revised edition , Berlin 1990
  • Christian Wagenknecht: German metric. A historical introduction. 5th extended edition , CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 3406557317

Web links