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HEIDEGGER’S POETRY: DISCOURSE OF A SAGE OR LANGUAGE EXPERIMENT?

Abstract
In this article, we examine Heidegger’s poetry, which was published in the 81st volume of his collected works. We consider it as an independent discursive practice that could express existence in a different mode of philosophical discourse, which could either be called “philosopher’s poetry” or “discourse of a thinker” — the experience of thinking in a pure form. With the help of poetry, Heidegger establishes the very possibility of poetic thought. Heidegger’s poetry during all his life, his work is ever-changing, from rhymed text to rhythmical vers libre, while simultaneously varying formats: counting rhyme, ecphrasis, a poem-commentary, aphorism, and so on. At the same time, the format of Heidegger’s poetry, as wells as its graphics, the attention to short (simple) words, form a connection with the Avant-garde poetry contemporary to him and in particular the minimalism of the middle and second half of the 20th century. The actual form of the poem (the rhyme, the length of the verse, and its vertical dimension, the iconization and the ductility) of the poetical word allows the philosopher to build connections that are equal in value without using common discursive elements such as cohesion tools and semblance. An etymological explosion sounds more persuasive in a poem than in a philosophical text, not only because of consonance, but also due to the graphics of the verse. Heidegger is attempting to “achieve” an untranslatable text, and thus his poetry is a manifestation of the possibilities of his native language, which is may be conceived as the universal discourse of a thinker. The most important aspect in the poetry of the philosopher is a new concept of text creation, an experience of a contemporary discussion through the speech of Parmenides. The non-linear nature of a poetical text, the dialectic of fragmentation/unity could materialize the lack of linearity in the wandering in front of the opening (Lichtung). The thinker’s discourse is characterized by a procedure of recurrence that is achieved by the cyclical nature of Heidegger’s poetry, the main unfinished text, and his gravitation around mini cycles and open cycles. Poetical discourse is a way towards antipropositionality, whereas poetry allows to stop perceiving language as a tool for creation of expression devices. It is also a theological approach: not to deduct the unknown from the known. Heidegger’s poetry can be seen as theological poetry as well.

Key words
Heidegger, poetical discourse, poetry and philosophy, discourse of a thinker, philosophical language, theological poetry, cyclicity.

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