Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin translated by Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover 496 pages (6 x 9 paper) German on facing pages ISBN: 9781890650353 $24.95 Correction: In the acknowledgements for the Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin, translated by Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover, we erred in listing the editors of Poems for the Millenium, Vol III: The University of California Book of Romantic and Post-Romantic Poetry. Here is the corrected acknowledgement: Poems for the Millennium, Vol. III: The University of California Book of Romantic and Post-Romantic Poetry, Ed. Jeffrey C. Robinson and Jerome Rothenberg (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009): "In the Forest." We apologize for this error. “perfect contemporary pitch” — Rosmarie Waldrop “aptly embodies scholarly authority” — Robert Alter “elegant & fluid translations” — Pierre Joris “This is a book to be treasured.” — John Ashbery Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back Within USA Free First Class or Priority Mail Shipping To order by mail: Send a check for$24.95to: Omnidawn 1632 Elm Ave Richmond, CA 94805-1614. Please include -your mailing address -your email address, should we need to contact you to complete order.

Praise for Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin

This is an admirable presentation of Hölderlin's poetry for English readers.   The understanding of Hölderlin aptly embodies scholarly authority, and the translations of the poems have a quiet dignity, avoiding stylistic ornamentation and in the directness of the language displaying much of Hölderlin's ability to convey the arresting immediacy of things.
— Robert Alter

To the groundbreaking Hölderlin translations of Michael Hamburger and Richard Sieburth one must now add the sumptuous new versions by two gifted poets, Paul Hoover and Maxine Chernoff. This is a book to be treasured.
— John Ashbery

More than his famous contemporaries, Goethe and Schiller, it is Friedrich Hölderlin, the poet of incessant change and transformation, who today stands as the major poet of his age — and whose visionary work has remained a plum line that helps us fathom the complexities (the beauty and the terror, the “inside real and the outside real,” as the poet Edward Dorn put it) of our own age. In their elegant & fluid translations of this excellent and exhaustive selection of poems, Paul Hoover and Maxine Chernoff capture the work’s extreme contemporaneity, what they themselves have called “the drama of Hölderlin’s consciousness, the beauty of his lyrics, and the largeness of his vision.” 
— Pierre Joris

This generous selection elucidates Hölderlin’s complex vision with perfect contemporary pitch. It is a version for our moment.
— Rosmarie Waldrop

About the translation:

This new bilingual edition (with German on facing pages) of Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin, has the clarity of Richard Sieburth’s translations, while representing, like Michael Hamburger, all the major forms and periods of Hölderlin’s production. Thanks to this new translation, contemporary readers will be able to see Hölderlin’s central position in the development of modern poetry, and why the later works are considered to be strangely prophetic of current modern and postmodern tendencies. Revealing the full poetic force of Holderlin’s work, this translation demonstrates why he is considered one of the world’s greatest poets (1770-1843), the foundational poet of European Romanticism, and an influence upon Nietzsche, Hegel, Rilke, and Heidegger. Included, as preface to the poems, is a comprehensive introduction by the translators.

About the translators:

Paul Hoover has published eleven books of poetry and is editor of a leading poetry anthology, Postmodern American Poetry (W. W. Norton, 1994). He is Professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University and curates the First Friday Poetry Series at the de Young Museum of San Francisco. Maxine Chernoff is Professor and Chair of the Creative Writing program at San Francisco State University. She is the author of six books of fiction and nine books of poetry. Paul Hoover and Maxine Chernoff co-edit the widely admired literary annual, New American Writing.