"Remembrance" ❦ 141

the homelike is immediately present in the poet's ability, and can be easily acquired and become his possession. This will to immediate acquisition is the deluded relation to the homeland, and this is why the homeland "preys" on the spirit. To learn the free use of one's own possibilities means to devote oneself more and more exclusively to being open for that which is assigned, to be alert to what is coming, to possess a sobriety which without staggering in varied courses holds fast to that one thing which is necessary. A sober, observant openness for the holy is at the same time an attunement to quietness, the rest that corresponds to the "restfulness" of which he thinks. This resting is the ability to remain in what is his own. Such remaining is present only as a learning journey, the homecoming return to the origin of what is his own. However, how can the poet, if it is true that he must learn to be able to remain in this clarity, now say:

But someone pass me,
Full of dark light,
The fragrant cup ...

When he calls for the cup, does he not rather call for the fragrance which anesthetizes one into forgetfulness and for the inebriating drink which makes one lose consciousness? The wine is named the dark light Thus at the same time the poet asks for the light and for the brightness which contribute to clarity. But the dark light in turn cancels out the clarity, for the light and the dark are in conflict. Or so it seems to be for that kind of thinking which is exhausted in calculating with objects. The poet of course sees an illumination which comes to appearance through its darkness. The dark light does not deny clarity; rather, it is the excess of brightness which, the greater it is, denies sight all the more decisively. The all-too-flaming fire does not just blind the eyes; rather, its excessive brightness also engulfs everything that shows itself and is darker than darkness itself. Sheer brightness is a greater danger to the poet's presentation, because the brightness leads to the illusion that in its appearance alone there can be sight. The poet asks for the gift of the dark light in which the brightness is tempered and softened. But this softening does not