Hymns to the Night (English and German Edition) Paperback – January 1, 1988

In 1800, the German writer Novalis published Hymns to the Night as a set of six poems. Their subject matter is humankind’s journey through different periods of spiritual-intellectual development. The final two poems contemplate the effects Christianity has had on the fate and the strivings of the human race. Hymns to the Night uniquely structures its poetic forms such that some parts of the poems carry just three words per line down the page, while other stanzas are made up of whole, long paragraphs.

This is Novalis' masterpiece. An absolutely sublime collection of six poetic hymns, each of which centering on a deeply routed problematic configured within Novalis' complicated commitments. The symbolism and imagery of the night is particularly luminous here-it is clear that Novalis was preoccupied with an implicit death-drive. This work is also the thinker's most decisively Christian work, which has turned off readers to it in the modern era. Considered in terms of its place in the history of the Romantic movement, this work should be regarded among the masters like Tieck, Goethe, and the like.

The poem is translated in English by someone who is clearly pound foolish and pennywise. So much effort is done to stay close to the original text but as a whole it has become a bit two dimensional. The poem itself reads like a profound work that has had and will have always some but not so manny admirers. That is not because it is so difficult or vague. No it's just that time kept this one secret for the grande majeure.