What withdraws itself from us in the designated way does, to be sure, draw away from us. But precisely thereby, it draws [zieht … mit] us along with it and attracts [zieht … an] us onto its way [Weise]. What withdraws itself seems to be completely absent. But this seeming deceives. What withdraws itself presences [west an], viz., in the way that it attracts us, whether or not we notice it immediately or at all. What attracts us has already granted arrival. When we arrive in the drawing [Ziehen] of the withdrawal, we are in the draft [or on the train: auf dem Zug] toward that which attracts us by withdrawing itself from us.
But if we, as the ones thus attracted, are in the draft toward… what draws us, then our essence is also already stamped, namely, by this ‘in the draft toward… .’ As the ones thus stamped, we ourselves point [weisen] toward what withdraws itself. We are only ourselves at all and are only those who we are by pointing into what withdraws itself. This pointing is our essence. We are by pointing [zeigen] into what withdraws itself. As the one pointing into it, the human is the pointer. To wit: the human is not first human and then additionally and perhaps occasionally a pointer; rather, as drawn into what withdraws itself, as in the draft toward this and hence pointing into the withdrawal, the human is first of all human. The human essence consists in being such a pointer.
What intrinsically, according to its ownmost constitution, is something that points we call a sign. As drawn in the draft into what withdraws itself, the human is a sign.
But although this sign points into such as withdraws itself, the pointing cannot without mediation interpret what withdraws itself there. The sign thus remains without interpretation.
Hölderlin says in a sketch for a hymn:
“A sign we are, without interpretation
Without pain we are and have almost
Lost language in the foreign.”
The sketches for hymns are accompanied by titles like “The Snake,” “The Nymphs,” “The Sign” and its revision, “Mnemosyne.” We can translate the Greek word into our German