Martin Heidegger's 19341935 lectures on Friedrich Hölderlin's hymns "Germania" and "The Rhine" are considered the most significant among Heidegger's lectures on Hölderlin. Coming at a crucial time in his career, the text illustrates Heidegger's turn toward language, art, and poetry while reflecting his despair at his failure to revolutionize the German university and his hope for a more profound revolution through the German language, guided by Hölderlin's poetry. These lectures are important for understanding Heidegger's changing relation to politics, his turn toward Nietzsche, his thinking about the German language, and his breakthrough to a new kind of poetic thinking. First published in 1980 as volume 39 of Heidegger's Complete Works, this graceful and rigorous English-language translation will be widely discussed in continental philosophy and literary theory.

William McNeill is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University.

Julia A. Ireland is an Assistant Professor at Whitman College. She has translated (with William McNeill) Hölderlin's Hymn "The Ister" (IUP, 1996).

Translators' ForewordPreliminary RemarkIntroduction 1. Outline of the Beginning, Manner of Procedure, and Approach of the Lecture Course

Part One"Germania"Chapter OnePreliminary Reflections: Poetry and Language 2. Provisional Path of Approach to the Poem as a Piece of Text 3. Entering the Domain in which Poetry Unfolds its Power 4. Concerning the Essence of Poetry 5. The Question Concerning the 'We' in the Turbulence of the Dialogue 6. Determining the 'We' from out of the Horizon of the Question of Time 7. The Linguistic Character of Poetry

Chapter TwoThe Fundamental Attunement of Poetizing and the Historicality of Dasein 8. Unfolding the Fundamental Attunement 9. Historical Time and Fundamental Attunement 10. The Locale of Dasein Founded in "Germania" within the Horizon of the Heraclitean Thought11. Transitional Overview and Summary: Revisiting the Domains Opened Up Thus Far as a Way of Determining More Precisely the Intent of the Lecture Course

Part Two"The Rhine"Transitional RemarkThe Question Concerning What is 'Innermost' in a Poetic Work as a Question of the Opening Up and Founding of Beyng in the Each Time New Prevailing of its Fundamental AttunementChapter OneThe Demigods as Mediating Middle between Gods and Humans. The Fundamental Attunement of the Poem. The Beyng of the Demigods and the Calling of the Poet12. Thinking the Essence of the Demigods in the Founding Projection of the Poet13. Strophe I. The Point of Departure for the Telling, and the Composure through which it is Experienced. The Apprehending of a Destiny14. Strophes II and III. The River Rhine as Destiny. Hearing its Origin and Assuming its VocationChapter TwoA More Incisive Review. Poetizing and Historical Dasein15. The Task of the Lecture Course: Entering the Domain in Which Poetry Unfolds its Power, and the Opening Up of its Actuality16. The Fundamental Approach in which our Interpretation Moves, Taking "Germania" as our Point of Departure17. The Interpretation in Detail. The River Rhine as Demigod18. Interim Reflection on the Metaphysics of Poetizing

Chapter ThreeThat which has Purely Sprung Forth as Strife in the Middle of Beyng19. Strophe IV. The Enigma of what has Purely Sprung Forth and the Origin of Poetizing20. Strophes V to IX. Unfolding the Essence of what has Purely Sprung Forth in the Conflict between Springing Forth and Having Sprung-Forth21. Strophes X Through XIII. Thinking the Beyng of the Demigods Starting From the Gods and From Humans22. Strophe XIV. Retaining the Mystery. The Thinking of the Poet Grounded in the Poetizing of the Thinker23. Strophe XV. The Poet as the Other24. The Metaphysical Locale of Hölderlin's PoetizingEditor's EpilogueTranslators' NotesGlossaryEnglishGermanGermanEnglish