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Hugo von Hofmannsthal
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Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Austrian author
born Feb. 1, 1874, Vienna
died July 15, 1929, Rodaun, a suburb of Vienna
Main
Austrian poet, dramatist, and essayist. He made his reputation with his
lyrical poems and plays and became internationally famous for his
collaboration with the German operatic composer Richard Strauss.
The only child of a bank director, Hofmannsthal studied law at
Vienna. At 16 he published his first poems, under the pseudonym Loris.
They created a stir in Vienna and in Germany with their lyrical beauty,
magic evocativeness of language, and dreamlike quality. Their
anticipation of mature experience and formal virtuosity seem incredible
in one so young. After his year of compulsory military service, he
studied Romance philology with a view to an academic career but in 1901
married and became a free-lance writer.
Between 1891 and 1899 Hofmannsthal wrote a number of short verse
plays, influenced by the static dramas of the Belgian writer Maurice
Maeterlinck, the dramatic monologues of the English Romantic poet Robert
Browning, and the proverbes dramatiques of the French poet Alfred de
Musset. These plays include Gestern (1891; “Yesterday”), Der Tod des
Tizian (1892; The Death of Titian, 1913), Der Tor und der Tod (1893;
Death and the Fool, 1913), Das kleine Welttheater (1897; “The Little
Theatre of the World”), Der Weisse Fächer (1898; partially translated as
The White Fan, 1909), Die Frau im Fenster (1898; Madonna Dianora, 1916),
Der Abenteurer und die Sängerin (1899; The Adventurer and the Singer,
1917–18), and Die Hochzeit der Sobeide (1899; The Marriage of Sobeide,
1961). Of the same exquisite beauty as the poems, these playlets are
lyric reflections on appearance and reality, transience and
timelessness, and continuity and change within the human
personality—themes constantly recurring in his later works. After the
turn of the century, however, Hofmannsthal renounced purely lyrical
forms in his essay “Ein Brief” (also called “Chandos Brief,” 1902). This
essay was more than the revelation of a personal predicament; it has
come to be recognized as symptomatic of the crisis that undermined the
esthetic Symbolist movement of the end of the century.
During a period of reorientation and transition Hofmannsthal
experimented with Elizabethan and classical tragic forms, adapting
Thomas Otway’s Venice Preserv’d (1682) as Das gerettete Venedig (1904)
and writing Elektra (1903), later set to music by Strauss. At the same
time he began his novel, Andreas (1932; The United, 1936), which he
never completed. The theatre increasingly became his medium. To the end
of his life he collaborated with Strauss, writing the librettos for the
operas Der Rosenkavalier (performed 1911; “The Cavalier of the Rose”),
Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919; “The Woman
Without a Shadow”), Die ägyptische Helena (1928; Helen in Egypt, 1963),
and Arabella (performed 1933).
After World War I, with the theatrical producer and designer Max
Reinhardt, he founded the Salzburg Festival, at which performances have
regularly been given of his Jedermann (1911; “Everyman”) and Das
Salzburger grosse Welttheater (1922; The Great Salzburg Theatre of the
World, 1963). His comedies, Cristinas Heimreise (1910; Christina’s
Journey Home, 1916), Der Schwierige (1921; The Difficult Man, 1963), and
Der Unbestechliche (performed 1923, published 1956; “The
Incorruptible”), are written in Viennese dialect and set in contemporary
Austrian society; concerned with moral issues, they blend realism with
concealed symbolism.
Hofmannsthal’s reflections on the crisis and disintegration of
European civilization after World War I found expression in his
political drama Der Turm (1925; The Tower, 1963) and in several essays
that were prophetic of the future of Western culture. He responded to
the collapse of the Habsburg empire by an increased awareness of his
Austrian heritage, at the same time committing himself to the European
tradition. His art continued to develop, and he always maintained the
delicate grace and sense of transcendent beauty typical of his earliest
works, but he was unable to accommodate himself to the 20th century.
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Hugo von Hofmannsthal
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Hofmannsthal was born in Vienna, the son of an upper-class Austrian mother
and an Austrian-Italian bank manager. His great-grandfather, Isaak Löw
Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal, from whom his family inherited the noble
title "Edler von Hofmannsthal," was a Jewish merchant ennobled by the
Austrian emperor. He began to write poems and plays from an early age. He
met the German poet Stefan George at the age of seventeen and had several
poems published in George's journal, Blätter für die Kunst. He studied law
and later philology in Vienna but decided to devote himself to writing upon
graduating in 1901. Along with Peter Altenberg and Arthur Schnitzler, he was
a member of the avant garde group Young Vienna (Junges Wien). In 1900,
Hofmannsthal met the composer Richard Strauss for the first time. He later
wrote libretti for several of his operas, including Elektra (1909), Der
Rosenkavalier (1911), Ariadne auf Naxos (1912, rev. 1916), Die Frau ohne
Schatten (1919), Die ägyptische Helena (1927), and Arabella (1933). In 1901,
he married Gertrud (Gerty) Schlesinger, the daughter of a Viennese banker.
Gerty, who was Jewish, converted to Christianity before their marriage. They
settled in Rodaun, not far from Vienna, and had three children. In 1912 he
adapted the 15th century English morality play Everyman as Jedermann, and
Jean Sibelius (amongst others) wrote incidental music for it. The play later
became a staple at the Salzburg Festival. During the First World War
Hofmannsthal held a government post. He wrote speeches and articles
supporting the war effort, and emphasizing the cultural tradition of
Austria-Hungary. The end of the war spelled the end of the old monarchy in
Austria; this was a blow from which the patriotic and conservative-minded
Hofmannsthal never fully recovered. Nevertheless the years after the war
were very productive ones for Hofmannsthal; he continued with his earlier
literary projects, almost without a break. In 1920, Hofmannsthal, along with
Max Reinhardt, founded the Salzburg Festival. His later plays revealed a
growing interest in religious, particularly Roman Catholic, themes. Among
his writings was a screenplay for a film version of Der Rosenkavalier (1925)
directed by Robert Wiene.
On July 13, 1929 his son Franz committed
suicide. Two days later, Hofmannsthal himself died of a stroke at Rodaun.
On October 18, 1902, Hoffmannsthal published a fictive letter in the Berlin
Daily, Der Tag (The Day) titled simply "Ein Brief" ("A Letter"). It was
purportedly written in 1603 by Philip, Lord Chandos to Francis Bacon. In
this letter Chandos says that he has stopped writing because he has "lost
completely the ability to think or to speak of anything coherently"; he has
given up on the possibility of language to describe the world. This letter
reflects the growing distrust of and dissatisfaction with language that so
characterizes the Modern era, and Chandos's dissolving personality is not
only individual but societal. Growing up the son of a wealthy merchant who
was well connected with the major artists of the time, Hofmannsthal was
raised in what Carl Schorske refers to as "the temple of art". This perfect
setting for aesthetic isolation allowed Hofmannsthal the unique perspective
of the privileged artist, but also allowed him to see that art had become a
flattened documenting of humanity, which took our instincts and desires and
framed them for viewing without acquiring any of the living, passionate
elements. Because of this realization, Hofmannsthal’s idea of the role of
the artist began to take shape as someone who created works that would
inspire or inflame the instinct, rather than merely preserving it in a
creative form. He also began to think that the artist should not be someone
isolated and left to his art, but rather a man of the world, immersed in
both politics and art. Hofmannsthal saw in English culture the ideal setting
for the artist. This was because the English simultaneously admired Admiral
Nelson and John Milton, both war heroes and poets, while still maintaining a
solid national identity. "In [Hofmannsthal’s] view, the division between
artist (writer) and man of action (politician, explorer, soldier) does not
exist in England. Britain provides her subjects with a common base of energy
which functions as equilibrium, a force lacking in fragmented Germany".
(Weiss) This singular and yet pragmatic identity must have appealed to
Hofmannsthal to a certain degree due to the large scale fragmentation of
Austria at the time, which was in the throes of radical nationalism and
anti-Semitism, a nation in which the progressive artist and the progressive
politician were growing more different and
hostile to each other by the day.
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Poems
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ERLEBNIS
Mit silbergrauem Dufte war das Tal
Der Dämmerung erfüllt, wie wenn der
Mond
Durch Wolken sickert. Doch es war
nicht Nacht.
Mit silbergrauem Duft des dunklen
Tales
Verschwammen meine dämmernden
Gedanken,
Und still versank ich in dem
webenden,
Durchsichtgen Meere und verließ das
Leben.
Wie wunderbare Blumen waren da
Mit Kelchen dunkelglühend!
Pflanzendickicht,
Durch das ein gelbrot Licht wie von
Topasen
In warmen Strömen drang und glomm.
Das Ganze
War angefüllt mit einem tiefen
Schwellen
Schwermütiger Musik. Und dieses wußt
ich,
Obgleich ichs nicht begreife, doch
ich wußt es:
Das ist der Tod. Der ist Musik
geworden,
Gewaltig sehnend, süß und
dunkelglühend,
Verwandt der tiefsten Schwermut.
Aber seltsam!
Ein namenloses Heimweh weinte
lautlos
In meiner Seele nach dem Leben,
weinte,
Wie einer weint, wenn er auf großem
Seeschiff
Mit gelben Riesensegeln gegen Abend
Auf dunkelblauem Wasser an der
Stadt,
Der Vaterstadt, vorüberfährt. Da
sieht er
Die Gassen, hört die Brunnen
rauschen, riecht
Den Duft der Fliederbüsche, sieht
sich selber,
Ein Kind, am Ufer stehn, mit
Kindesaugen,
Die ängstlich sind und weinen
wollen, sieht
Durchs offne Fenster Licht in seinem
Zimmer -
Das große Seeschiff aber trägt ihn
weiter
Auf dunkelblauem Wasser lautlos
gleitend
Mit gelben fremdgeformten
Riesensegeln.
EXPERIENCE
The valley of dusk was filled
With a silver-grey fragrance, like
the moon
Seeping through clouds. But it
wasn't night.
The silver-grey fragrance of the
dark valley
Caused my sleepy thoughts to blur,
And silently I sank into the
weaving,
Transparent sea and left my life.
What wonderful flowers there were,
With dark chalices glowing! A maze
of plants
Through which a yellow-red light,
as if from topazes, glowed in warm
streams. All
Was filled with a deep swelling
Of melancholy music. And this I
knew,
Even though I could not fathom it,
but I knew:
This was death. Death turned music,
With an immense longing, sweet and
glowing darkly,
Brother to deepest melancholy.
And yet:
A nameless homesickness for life
kept crying
Mutely in my soul, crying as someone
On board a big ocean vessel would
cry, a ship, driven
By gigantic yellow sails, passing by
the city,
His city, at night in dark-blue
water. There he sees
The lanes, hears the rushing of the
fountains, smells
The scent of the lilac bushes, sees
himself,
A child, standing on the shore, with
a child's eyes,
Fearful, with tears welling up, sees
Through the open window the light in
his room
But the big ship carries him along,
Gliding away on dark-blue water
soundlessly,
Driven by gigantic yellow sails of
strange shape.
The Gardener's Daughters
One fills the large Delft jugs,
Painted with blue dragons and birds,
With a loose sheaf of bright flowers:
Among them jasmine, ripe roses unfolding,
Dahlias, carnations and narcissus...
Tall daisies, lilac umbels and
snowball
Dance above them, and
Stalks, silvery down and panicles sway...
A fragrant bacchanal...
The other with pale thin fingers picks
Long-stemmed rigid orchids,
Two or three for a narrow vase...
Rising up with fading colors,
With long styles, strange and winding,
With purple threads and garish dots,
With violet brown panther spots
And lurking, seductive chalices
Wanting to kill...
»Works« are Dead Rock
»Works« are dead rock, sprung from resounding chisel,
When the master is at work, chipping away at his living self.
»Works« announce the mind as pupas announce the butterfly:
»Look, it left me behind – lifeless – and fluttered away.«
»Works« are like reeds, Midas' whispering reeds,
Spreading secrets long after having ceased to be true.
Written in a Copy of 'Yesterday'
Thoughts are apples on the tree,
Not meant for anyone in particular,
But they end up belonging
To the one who takes them.
Canticum Canticorum IV, 12-16
You are the garden locked,
Your childlike hands are waiting,
Your lips are without violence.
You are the fountain sealed,
Life's frozen threshold,
Tart and cold in ignorance.
Take wings, north wind,
Come, south wind, across the hills,
And blow through this grove!
Let all fragrances come awake,
Let life free itself
KLEINE ERINNERUNGEN
Deine kleine Schwester
Hat ihre offenen Haare
Wie einen lebendigen Schleier,
Wie eine duftende Hecke
Vornüberfallen lassen
Und schaut, mit solchen Augen!
Durch einen duftenden Schleier,
Durch eine dunkle Hecke...
Wie süß ists, nur zu denken
An diese kleinen Dinge.
An allen sehnsüchtigen Zweigen
In deinem nächtigen Garten
Sind Früchte aufgegangen,
Lampions wie rote Früchte,
Und wiegen sich und leuchten
An den sehnsüchtigen Zweigen,
Darin der Nachtwind raschelt,
In deinem kleinen Garten...
Wie süß ists, nur zu denken
An diese kleinen Dinge...
REMEMBERED
Your little sister
Has tossed her
Untied hair forward
Like a living veil,
Like a fragrant hedge,
And peers, with such eyes!
Through a fragrant veil,
Through a dark hedge ...
How sweet it is to only
Think of such little things.
Fruits have ripened
On all the longing branches
In your nightly garden,
Chinese lanterns like red fruits
Sway and illuminate
The longing branches
Rustled by the night wind
In your little garden ...
How sweet it is to only
Think of such little things.
Translated by Johannes Beilharz
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