Heidegger’s Conception of the Essence of Poetic Language: A Study of Contemporaneity in the Thought of Hölderlin and Khayyam

Contemporaneity is an approach toward recognising the essence of poetic language. It transcends temporal boundaries that are defined through chronological classifications. In examining the poetic world of Khayyam and Friedrich Hölderlin, the concept of contemporaneity functions as an ontological necessity, which becomes manifest in accordance with two components: the subject-position and the passage beyond the subject. Informed by Martin Heidegger’s theory and reflecting on Hölderlin’s poetry, the present study attempts to establish an implicit dialogue between Kayyam and Hölderlin. The findings of the research indicate that Heidegger seeks the realisation of Being within poetic language, while Hölderlin’s poetry, in a radical way, determines the spaces of Being in order to critique subject-centred metaphysics. Accordingly, Khayyam’s poetic language remains open and interpretable. Within his poeticity, the possibility of rediscovery is continually renewed. Additionally, concepts such as temporality, meaning-production, and the enigmatic nature of language manifest another dimension of the subject-position in Khayyam’s poetry. The disappearance of the subject, along with inviting the poet toward silence, does not present the human as a dominant subject standing outside the world, but rather as a being situated at the margins and as a part of the world.
 
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Contemporaneity is one of the most contested issues in philosophy, comparative literature, and literary criticism. While many contemporary thinkers view contemporaneity as both belonging to one’s historical epoch and maintaining a critical distance from it, the present study adopts a deeper ontological approach to this notion. It seeks to define contemporaneity not merely as a temporal or historical attribute but as an intrinsic characteristic embedded within the linguistic and ontological structure of poetry itself. The central question of this study is why the quatrains of Omar Khayyam and the poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin, despite the considerable temporal, geographical, and cultural distance, continue to engage contemporary readers in a living and reciprocal dialogue. Addressing this question constitutes the core concern of the present research, which draws upon Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutical reflections on the essence of poetic language and develops its argument around two fundamental dimensions of contemporaneity: transcendence of historical situatedness and the overcoming of subjectivity. The significance of this inquiry lies in its potential to illuminate the mechanisms through which poetry remains contemporary, thereby opening the possibility of an intersubjective and intercultural dialogue between Eastern and Western intellectual traditions and offering new perspectives for understanding the human condition in the contemporary world.
2. Methodology
This study employs an analytical method grounded in philosophical hermeneutics. Following a comprehensive review of relevant sources, the collected materials are examined hermeneutically in order to disclose their concealed layers of meaning. Rather than limiting itself to descriptive or purely textual analysis, the study reconstructs the constitutive dimensions of contemporaneity and their significance in the poetry of Hölderlin and Khayyam through a philosophical-hermeneutical approach. The aim is to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the intellectual and poetic worlds of both poets.
3. Theoretical Framework
The theoretical foundation of this study is rooted in Heidegger’s later ontology. Within this horizon, the human being is no longer conceived as a sovereign subject who masters the world through conscious will, but rather as the shepherd of Being who responds to the call of Being within the medium of language. The most authentic manifestation of this response is poetic language, for poetry alone can let beings appear as what they truly are. Heidegger turns to Hölderlin because his poetic language opens a phenomenological-ontological space in which the traditional subject-object dichotomy collapses, and human beings are invited to dwell poetically upon the earth. Khayyam, within the Persian literary tradition, develops a similar yet independent framework. His poetic language is characterised by openness and fluidity, inviting readers not to receive a predetermined meaning but to participate in the production of meaning itself. Accordingly, contemporaneity is understood here not as a chronological category but as an ontological characteristic inherent in the essence of poetic language. It is articulated through two principal dimensions: transcendence of historical situatedness and the overcoming of subjectivity, placing both poets within a shared ontological paradigm.
4. Discussion and Analysis
One of the most significant dimensions of Khayyam’s contemporaneity is his transcendence of historical situatedness. His poetry engages readers in such a way that its language surpasses the social and cultural structures of its original context. His quatrains travel through history, revealing new layers of meaning within different traditions and cultures. This transcendence manifests itself in several forms: First is the fluidity and elusiveness of meaning. Meaning continually escapes both author and reader; once detached from its historical origin, it simultaneously resists definitive appropriation by each new interpreter. Second is the disruption of habitual meaning. Unlike texts whose meanings gradually become aesthetic conventions, Khayyam’s quatrains generate fresh meanings in every new encounter with their readers. This feature partly explains their remarkable global reception and translation into numerous languages. Third is linguistic playfulness. Khayyam’s poetic language is playful and enigmatic, not because of stylistic obscurity but because each encounter generates a new configuration of meaning. Historical evidence supports this transcendence of situatedness: the emergence of Khayyamian discourses after his death, the attribution of anonymous quatrains to him, and the continual reinterpretation of his poetry demonstrate that his work has been liberated from its original historical context and repeatedly generates new meanings. In Hölderlin, this transcendence assumes a different form. The poet distances himself from the historical conditions of his own age, experiencing them as alien to his essential vocation. Heidegger characterises this estrangement as homelessness, the poet’s search for a new dwelling place where historical openness may once again become possible. The second constitutive dimension of contemporaneity is the overcoming of subjectivity. From Heidegger’s perspective, Hölderlin’s poetry offers one of the most radical critiques of modern subjectivism. In Bread and Wine, the modern human being appears as estranged from authentic identity, abandoned in a godless world, and arriving too late on the historical scene. Hölderlin’s response is a return to ancient Greece—not as a nostalgic restoration of myth but as a recovery of the primordial bond between humanity, nature, and Being that modernity has obscured. A similar movement can be discerned in Khayyam’s poetry. Human beings are not sovereign subjects standing at the centre of the cosmos but participants in the cyclical processes of nature. Living in the present moment, acknowledging the world’s perpetual becoming, and relinquishing the illusion of mastery over time all exemplify the overcoming of subjectivity. The shared insight of both poets is that human beings should not occupy the position of a dominating subject but should instead be called to dwell poetically upon the earth, where they become not conquerors of the world but shepherds of Being.
5. Conclusion
This study demonstrates that contemporaneity in the thought of Hölderlin and Khayyam is neither accidental nor merely literary but possesses a fundamentally ontological foundation that can be understood through the two principal dimensions of transcendence of historical situatedness and the overcoming of subjectivity. Both poets participate in the openness of poetic language. Khayyam’s fluid and open-ended poetic discourse and Hölderlin’s call for Dasein to dwell poetically upon the earth both move beyond the dominance of subjectivism and disclose new pathways toward the truth of Being. Heidegger pursued this path in the later phase of his philosophy through his interpretation of Hölderlin’s poetry. The present study argues that a comparable path may be discerned in a hermeneutical reading of Khayyam’s quatrains. The principal contribution of this research is to show that contemporaneity in the thought of both poets provides a valuable opportunity for intersubjective and intercultural dialogue between Eastern and Western intellectual traditions. Such a dialogue does not arise from superficial analogies but from a shared ontological ground upon which both poets, despite their differences of language, history, and tradition, pose similar questions concerning the meaning of Being, the place of humanity in the world, and the destiny of poetic language—questions that continue to define the existential horizon of contemporaneity.
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