China and the West

Heidegger, Martin. Die Einzigkeit des Dichters. In : Vorträge und Aufsätze (1954).
Heidegger schreibt : "Dreissig Speichen treffen die Nabe, Aber das Leere zwischen ihnen gewährt das Sein des Rades. Aus dem Ton ent-stehen die Gefässe, Aber das Leere in ihnen gewährt das Sein des Gefässes. Mauern und Fenster und Türen stellen das Haus dar, Aber das Leere zwischen ihnen gewährt das Sein des Hauses. Das Seiende ergibt die Brauchbarkeit. Das Nicht-Seiende gewährt das Sein."

Ma Lin : Heidegger cites the whole of chapter 11 from the Daodejing. He deals with the question where the uniqueness of the poet resides. Two ready approaches offer themselves. One approach is historical, that is, one can discover the poet's singularity through a comparative study of poets in the history of literature. Another approach is unhistorical, that is, one can find the distinctive characteristics of poets in accordance with the nature (ore measure) of poetry. In the eyes of Heidegger, these two approaches, or their combination, fail to provide an adequate anser to this question. Because they are both separated from the originary event (Ereignis) that makes a poet poet, a poem poem, these approaches are necessarily arbitrary, external and superficial. The unique poet Heidegger has in mind is Hölderlin, since his poetry takes its origin in the coming time.
Heidegger's text differs from Ular's translation in several places. He changes both 'erwirkt' which occurs twice and 'wirkt' which occurs one into 'gewährt', and puts a dash within the word 'entstehen', and thus writes 'ent-stehen'. He replaces Ular's word 'Töpfe' with 'Gefässe', and modifies 'birgt' in the next to last sentence as 'erbirgt'. He uses 'zwischen' twice, once more than Ular does, and replaces Ular's 'Stoffliche' with 'Seiende', and 'Unstoffliche' with 'Nicht-Seiende' corrspondingly. The most important change is his replacement of Ular's word 'Wesenheit' with 'Sein'.