4
Hymnen an die Nacht
(Hymns to the night)
NOVALIS
(1799-1800)
Darkness, gloom, clouds: an entire Christian mystical tradition worked on these negative images with a positive sense. It is in this tradition that the Hymns can be located, although they mean a re-elaboration of contents: the feeling of pleasure sinks here with negativeness. The third hymn, when the poet stands before Sophie’s tomb, his lover, the vision and the sleep transfigure the landscape, that will be an unavoidable reference for the other great hymn at night, i.e. the second act of Wagner’s Tristan.