Friday 18 July 2014

Hymn To Old Age - Hermann Hesse

Few authors had quite the capacity and the vision to explore the human condition like Hermann Hesse. His novels have been an important part of my life in recent years, and his other writings are just as enthralling and inspiring. Some of these writings are compiled in "Hymn To Old Age"....
 


This collection comprises various "fragments" and vignettes, all loosely addressing and musing on the subjects of old age and ageing. They include extracts from letters and novels, as well as poems and essays. As they were written over several decades, they are endowed with a real vibrancy and diversity. This should not be regarded as Hesse's definitive "take" on the subject matter, and the pieces do not appear to be consciously arranged in any particular order, chronological or otherwise.
 
As ever, Hesse draws on nature, and natural phenomena such as weather and the changing seasons, as powerful and credible metaphor. There are many allusions too to the febrile and uncertain times in which the author lived. The outpourings published here are also largely informed by Hesse's fascination for Eastern philosophies, and concepts such as transcendence, one-ness and the essential harmony of the universe are much in evidence.
 
The writer's love of, and zest for, life permeates every word, as does his eagerness to savour every moment which that existence has to offer. This all ties in with the author's concerns with transience, and the urge to live for the moment, and to appreciate the beauty and vitality of those moments.
 
One of the themes which one detects through these writings is how in some respects the approach of the young and the old bears similarities, even if the reasons for this, and its precise symptoms, are subtly different. Do we lose something crucial in our "middle years"?  Honesty, receptiveness to beauty and simplicity? 
 
The degree to which we have control over when the beginning ends and the end begins is debatable, and it is arguably affected by the environment in which we operate, particularly in the industrial and technological age. Hesse, delicately though resolutely, implies that modern urban life,  consumer society and "the rat race" are not altogether conducive to quiet contemplation and "mindfulness". Many of the tales and scenarios contained here are set in quintessentially "Hesse-ian" rural or idyllic surroundings, and the protagonists have often lived a vaguely ascetic life.
 
Despite everything, to me this book did not feel like a treatise on age and ageing, but more as a sampler, refresher or reiteration of Hesse's concerns, outlooks and favourite themes. The language and wordplay are largely gentle , but add up to something profound and thought-provoking, because of the coherence and humanity of the author's vision.
 
As mentioned above, the concepts of ageing, and the passage of time, dovetail vividly with Hesse's ideas and preoccupations, to do with spiritual exploration, and notions of "home" and constant renewal and rebirth. His attitudes to death, unconventional to many Western eyes both then and now, are but one manifestation of these beliefs.
 
In my own personal situation, I noted the assertion that the young and the old, both have a lack of real concern for the future, for separate reasons, thus permitting a more dominant role for the present and "the moment". Does this lead to a greater freedom and contentment?  Those of us in the "no man's land" between the two poles, who constantly hanker after a return to the days of our youth, may have got things wrong. A more attainable and real sanctuary could await us when we reach old age.
 
Some of the extracts in "Hymn To Old Age" I had read before, in novels and so forth, and most are written or expressed in Hesse's trademark style. However, his writing never becomes repetitive or mundane, as it is so invigorating, enriching and life-affirming. The purity and optimism in his work never grows old.
 
 

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