On Distant Peaks

Abstract

The historical time of a people is founded and grounded by means of three figures, viz. the poet, the thinker and the statesman. They are the authentic creative ones, but dwell on separate peaks. Although many Heidegger scholars seek an overlap between thinking and poetizing in his thinking in order to determine the relation positively, Heidegger in fact leaves the relation emphatically open. Poetry in a strict sense must be regarded from language, which, in turn, must be regarded from poetry in a broad sense, or an ontological sense. Heidegger argues that the saying of Being is ‘say-like’—that is, poetry in an originary sense—which can solely be determined from Being as the appropriating event. As such, both poetizing and thinking yield from the concealed origin.