The Seasons of the Soul The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse (Audible Audio Edition) Hermann Hesse Ludwig Max Fischer Andrew Harvey Books
Download As PDF : The Seasons of the Soul The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse (Audible Audio Edition) Hermann Hesse Ludwig Max Fischer Andrew Harvey Books
Vowing at an early age "to be a poet or nothing at all", Hermann Hesse rebelled against formal education, focusing on a rigorous program of independent study that included literature, philosophy, art, and history. One result of these efforts was a series of novels that became counterculture bibles that remain widely influential today. Another was a body of evocative spiritual poetry. Published for the first time in English, these vivid, probing short works reflect deeply on the challenges of life and provide a spiritual solace that transcends specific denominational hymns, prayers, and rituals.
The Seasons of the Soul offers valuable guidance in poetic form for those longing for a more meaningful life, seeking a sense of homecoming in nature, in each stage of life, in a renewed relationship with the divine. Extensive quotations from his prose introduce each theme addressed in the book love, imagination, nature, the divine, and the passage of time. A foreword by Andrew Harvey reintroduces us to a figure about whom some may have believed everything had already been said. Thoughtful commentary throughout from translator Ludwig Max Fischer helps readers understand the poems within the context of Hesse's life.
The Seasons of the Soul The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse (Audible Audio Edition) Hermann Hesse Ludwig Max Fischer Andrew Harvey Books
Not a "complete poems" volume--which would be very nice to have, but which I don't think exists yet!--but a nice compilation which takes poems written all throughout Hesse's life, and presents them in a very non-chronological sequence, but put into sections according to themes.The title is a little pompous, making it seem like Hesse was an enlightened teacher gazing down upon humanity--which he would disagree with, and which his best poems dispute--in fact making him to appear like the pompous old image of Goethe which he so criticized in his classic STEPPENWOLF novel--but the contents are very good.
It has been argued that some of these English translations seem "New Age-y" in a bad sense, vague and pontifical. I think this was just a tendency of Hesse--who loved nature--and not the fault of the translator; other, earlier translations also seem to have presented this tendency in some of Hesse's poetry. And it's not *bad*, just uninteresting at times. But Hesse at his best--and there are many examples of that in this book--is very edifying and beautiful to read.
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The Seasons of the Soul The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse (Audible Audio Edition) Hermann Hesse Ludwig Max Fischer Andrew Harvey Books Reviews
This book gives a wonderful glimpse into the soul of Hermann Hesse at various points in his life. Not only his poetry, but other writings, plus the commentary of the author/translator, Ludwig Max Fischer, and the Foreword by Andrew Harvey complement beautifully the writings of Hesse .
I've just started reading this and I find it an interesting read. I'm sure I'll enjoy it more once I get into the book more. It also has a little history about Hesse, which I find interesting.
I heard one of Hermann Hesse's quotes on a TV program and just had to hear more from this author. Beautiful and inspiring collection that will certainly touch your soul. Puts many things into perspective.
I did not realize what a wonderful poet Hesse was until I read this book. Sensitive, Evocative and Compelling. Fischer's commentary truly gives a sense of the influences that were behind this great writer. A book to cherish. Thank you !
I've loaned it once too many times and am missing referring to it, but it's impossible to get it back; one-of-a-kind, in the very best sense of those words. I ordered his other book for $100 as a result of this one which is a total first and probably last for me to do.
I had the pleasure of reading this slim bound volume of Herman Hesse’s poems recently in the local library and simply had to purchase a copy of my own. I had read Herman Hesse when I was a teenager but it is the beautiful and sensitive translation of these poems by Ludwig Max Fischer that helped me to once more appreciate the depth and boldness of Hesse’s writing. The poems in this edition are divided into five sections roughly corresponding to the topics of love, inspiration, finding meaning, the divine and growing old. Each candid poem resonated deeply as now I read it not only admiring the beauty and power of the poems but from experiences encountered and memories accumulated. What is so moving is the poems speak a universal language of thoughts, emotions, questions, doubts, resolutions that transcend time, space and culture. I find this a book for those not only seeking inspiration but who enjoy the beauty of language and imagery as solace for the soul.
I was excited to purchase and receive this collection, especially after seeing good reviews on . Hesse has been perhaps my favorite author since reading Siddartha as a teenager, and I keep returning to Steppenwolf, Demian, along with Journey to the East, long after having read each of these for the first time. While there is no doubt, to my mind, that Hesse was one of the greatest writers of his time, the translation you will find here is severely lacking. What struck me as immediately telling about its quality was the sense that I was reading cheap new-age banter, comprised by the foreward and other exegetical material. This is divided into snippets from both the translator and another person, both of whom seem to offer some fine and accurate remarks, but also a good deal of exposition that is frankly overdone and sappy. The biggest disappointment, however, was the fact that many poems which rhyme in the original German have not retained this feature in the English. Nor have they retained their proper rhythm. I can acknowlege that this would have been no simple feat, but such is the work of good translation. For an example, consider "Stufen," one of Hesse's finest cosmic poems, the one which the collection ends in. Fischer translates the title as "Stages," which gets at the meaning of the poem, but it is precisely this sort of straying from the letter of the piece that illuminates the sort of liberties he's already taken to interpret for the reader. Here's the original German for you
Wie jede Blüte welkt und jede Jugend
Dem Alter weicht, blüht jede Lebensstufe,
Blüht jede Weisheit auch und jede Tugend
Zu ihrer Zeit und darf nicht ewig dauern.
Es muß das Herz bei jedem Lebensrufe
Bereit zum Abschied sein und Neubeginne,
Um sich in Tapferkeit und ohne Trauern
In andre, neue Bindungen zu geben.
Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne,
Der uns beschützt und der uns hilft, zu leben.
Wir sollen heiter Raum um Raum durchschreiten,
An keinem wie an einer Heimat hängen,
Der Weltgeist will nicht fesseln uns und engen,
Er will uns Stuf' um Stufe heben, weiten.
Kaum sind wir heimisch einem Lebenskreise
Und traulich eingewohnt, so droht Erschlaffen,
Nur wer bereit zu Aufbruch ist und Reise,
Mag lähmender Gewöhnung sich entraffen.
Es wird vielleicht auch noch die Todesstunde
Uns neuen Räumen jung entgegen senden,
Des Lebens Ruf an uns wird niemals enden...
Wohlan denn, Herz, nimm Abschied und gesunde!
Now compare that to Fischer's English
All blossoms will wilt,
each youth fold into the mold of age.
Wisdom and virtue never last forever.
Your heart must always be ready to leave
and ready to begin again,
must form new bonds
with courage and without regret.
Every beginning offers a magic power
that protects us and helps us to endure.
This journey through the realms of life
was not meant to end in one home only.
World spirit does not want to tie us down,
wants us to soar into the open.
When we stay too long in one place,
get stuck in norm and habit, we wear out.
Only embarking on new, unknown journeys
can free us from the prison of stagnation.
Maybe the moment of our death too
is just another gate to new dimensions
The call of life to us will never end.
Well, then, my heart, take leave and heal.
While much of the poem's sense has been preserved, Fischer's form does not imitate Hesse's strictly enough to give one a feel for the intensity and exactness of the latters' disciplined, formal, traditional craft. The intention with this collection was good, but the execution seems to me flawed. One gets the suspicion from it that Fischer's German is simply not up to the task. Some might call me a Steppenwolf for complaining like this, and I would concur entirely.
Not a "complete poems" volume--which would be very nice to have, but which I don't think exists yet!--but a nice compilation which takes poems written all throughout Hesse's life, and presents them in a very non-chronological sequence, but put into sections according to themes.
The title is a little pompous, making it seem like Hesse was an enlightened teacher gazing down upon humanity--which he would disagree with, and which his best poems dispute--in fact making him to appear like the pompous old image of Goethe which he so criticized in his classic STEPPENWOLF novel--but the contents are very good.
It has been argued that some of these English translations seem "New Age-y" in a bad sense, vague and pontifical. I think this was just a tendency of Hesse--who loved nature--and not the fault of the translator; other, earlier translations also seem to have presented this tendency in some of Hesse's poetry. And it's not *bad*, just uninteresting at times. But Hesse at his best--and there are many examples of that in this book--is very edifying and beautiful to read.
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