Holderlin's Hymn "the Ister"

Martin Heidegger's 1942 lecture course interprets Friedrich HÅ¡lderlin's hymn "The Ister" within the context of HÅ¡lderlin's poetic and philosophical work, with particular emphasis on HÅ¡lderlin's dialogue with Greek tragedy. Delivered in summer 1942 at the University of Freiburg, this course was first published in German in 1984 as volume 53 of Heidegger's Collected Works. Revealing of Heidegger's thought of the period are his discussions of the meaning of "the political" and "the national," in which he emphasizes the difficulty, as well as the necessity, of finding "one's own" in and through a dialogue with "the foreign." In this context Heidegger reflects on the nature of translation and interpretation. A detailed reading of the Òode to manÓ from Sophocles' Antigone, is a key feature of the course.