135. Meaningfulness of Poetry | 127
Hölderlin’s poetry is meaningful in its saying in such a way that multifarious areas and regions open and close up, are shown and kept secret in the proper domain of saying. This proper meaning of the poem itself (that it is meaningful in itself) holds sealed within it a particular configuration of the truth of poetry. No exposition can make it possible to state this configuration in report or description. Even the poet himself does not know the entire domain of saying; this not-knowing is not the sign of a lack but rather indicates the essentiality of his word, that this is powerful enough in itself to support a genuine history of the opening up of the concealment named by him. The meaningfulness of the poetry must in no way be thought as being the result of a variety of interpretations. On the contrary, that variety is conditioned by the meaningfulness. But not by this alone, and for the most part not at all by this. Ambiguity of interpretation arises from the potential multiplicity of mostly extraneous viewpoints and explanations that are brought to bear on the poetry. Through this there arises a business of interpreting; according to this business, interpreting is in itself poly-valent, eager for different and conflicting explanations, all of which can play out outside the domain of truth of the poetry. Usually the ambiguity of interpretation passes the meaningfulness of the poetry by—; this is in itself singular, demanding the essential word’s gathering into one, and withdraws itself from the business of explaining.
The serving of the imageless word, thinking-ahead in thinking—