Учебное пособие 1876

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 1 (24), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

UDC 811.112.2’42

POETRY OF DIETRICH BONHOEFFER AS A REFLECTION OF HIS PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS AND SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

J.A. Shtonda

___________________________________________________________________________

Voronezh State University

post-graduate student of the Department of German Philology Julia Alexandrovna Shtonda

e-mail: juljashtnda@gmail.com

____________________________________________________________________________

Statement of the problem. The article deals with the poetry of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) – famous German theologian and martyr who was killed by the Nazis during the II World War as active member of German Resistance movement. Dietrich Bonhoeffer started to write his poetry in a prison cell. The focus of the article is to look at the poem „Christians and Pagans“ in a more detailed way.

Results. The poetry mirrors his emotional state and philosophical views. The time in the prison leads him to reflect upon his life and the fate of his nation. During the time of his imprisonment, he had time to compare the situation in a prison cell with the changes and tendencies of the epoch in which he lived. As a theologian he knew very well the religious poetry of the German Lutheran church. However, he does not emulate the style of famous German authors but strives to tell about God in a modern way which is meant to be comprehensible for everyone. The poetry is filled with biblical symbolism which enables him to reflect upon his own life in the context of his time.

“Christians and Pagans” in its compressed form depicts a theological concept he had been working on during the captivity.

Conclusion. The rhythmic structure of the poem forms a logical ring. The paradoxical comparisons enable the author to reconcile opposite concepts. By using repetitions, the syntactical and semantic contrast and varying level of intensity of the attribute. D. Bonhoeffer succeeds to convey his philosophical views effectively. Similar content can be found in his works of this time period but also in other works of famous poets and thinkers of the twentieth century. This fact shows the importance of D. Bonhoeffer poetry in the context of his epoch, even though he wrote only few poems.

Key words: poetry, expressing means, genre of the poetry, contrast, semantic and syntactical repetitions.

For citation: Shtonda J.A. Poetry of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a reflection of his philosophical views and spiritual journey / J.A. Shtonda // Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-didactic Researches”. – 2019. - №1 (24). – P. 114-123

Introduction

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the author of just ten poems. He started writing poetry when in the

Gestapo prison. When his friend Eberhard Bethge opened Bonhoeffer’s letters, he was utterly amazed by the deepness, rich content and beauty of Bonhoeffer’s poems. Bethge suggested that the readers might consider these poems to be the result of extensive practice and serious creative work. Bethge also underscored the conciseness, brevity and precision of Bonhoeffer’s poetic style: Wer es liest, würde es wohl kaum glauben, daß das von jemand kommt, der fast nie dichtet, sondern es für eine Frucht langer Übung und Arbeit halten. Aber Du hast ja nun schon sehr viel um Sprache und Ausdruck Dich bemüht. Ich finde darin wieder die Gedrungenheit Deines Stils, Knappheit und Prägnanz, Klarheit etwas zu sagen, dabei sehr schöne anschauliche Bilder. / The people reading these poems will hardly believe that they were written by a man who had hardly ever wrote poetry, but instead they will think this is the result of practice and hard work. However, you’ve already been working a lot on the language and style

(my translation – Y.S.) [1*, p. 484]. Later, these poems were included in school textbooks and are still used in church services in protestant temples in Germany [2, p. 193].

__________________

© Shtonda J.A., 2019

114

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 1 (24), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

To the broad audience Dietrich Bonhoeffer is well known primarily as a Christian theologian and a member of the German Resistance movement. During World War II he took part in a plot against Hitler. Bonhoeffer’s first poems started to appear in the letters addressed to his friend from April 1943 to February 1945 during his imprisonment in the Tegel prison near Berlin. On February 7th, 1945 Bonhoeffer was transferred to another prison in Berlin without the right to correspondence. On April 9th, 1945 he was hanged in the Flossenburg concentration camp [3, p.138].

The time of Bonhoeffer’s imprisonment is divided by the publisher of his works into four periods: 1) interrogations, 2) awaiting for being sentenced, 3) awaiting of Hitler’s assassination,

4) the last period – the time after the unsuccessful attempt at assassination, when Bonhoeffer realizes that death penalty is inevitable [1*, p.642].

During the first year of his imprisonment, Bonhoeffer did not write poetry. From April to December 1944, i.e. during the third and the fourth periods of his life in prison, ten poems on various subject matters were written. This time was the most pressing, as the danger of death sentence was more and more acute, and during the last period he was clearly aware of his close death. However, despite the complexity and his life being in peril, Bonhoeffer was working fruitfully, devoting his thoughts to theological issues. At the same time he wrote poems, in which not only did he express his emotional state, but also he talked about the meaning of sufferings and death and about the fate of his native country and his people. And this is very symbolic, since the poems were written in the extreme situation of understanding of a close end of his life in this world, with no hope for liberation. It can be suggested that this is the reason why in his poems he conceives of his close death via the Biblical images. It is easy to recognize Bonhoeffer in his poetic persona1 of “the portrait of the artist in the light of death” [4, p. 345].

Since Bonhoeffer had not written any poetry before his imprisonment, he was eager to receive his friend’s feedback to his letters to which the poems were attached: “I feel rather at sea with these new children of mine, and haven’t any standards to judge them by” [2*, p. 263]. Having attached a draft of a poem to one of his letters, he noted that the lines of the verse still needed improvement and asserted that he was not a poet:

Ich sehe heute früh, daß ich die Verse noch einmal ganz umbauen muß. Trotzdem mögen sie im Rohbau so an Dich abgehen. Ich bin ja kein Dichter! [1*, p. 572]. / As I read these lines over in the early morning I see they need complete revision, but I’m still sending them to you as they are. After all, I don’t pretend to be a poet! [2*, p. 171].

Research methodology

This article focuses on the features of the syntactic and semantic macrostructure of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s poems written in the Tegel prison. The subjects of research are individual stylistic features of his poetic texts and verbal means of conveying the author’s message.

The research is based on Bonhoeffer’s poems written in Tegel prison in 1943-1944 and attached to his letters to his friend and the woman he loved.

The aim of the research is the thematic and stylistic analysis of the poem “Christen und Heiden“/«Christians and Pagans” in the wider context of poetic legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

The analysis of the poem required the use of several research methods, namely, the interpretative method, semantic and syntactic analysis of stylistic means and the analysis of text as a semantic, structural and functional unit.

1 «A poetic persona is the image of a poet in her lyrics, one of the ways of disclosing the author's conscience. The lyric persona is a literary “counterpart” of the poet, which develops from the poetic texts (e.g., an array of verses, a book of poems, a lyric poem, the whole poetic legacy) as a clearly shaped figure or a role, as a person with her individual fate, psychological distinctiveness of her inner world and sometimes with the features of figurative image” [1**, p.452].

115

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 1 (24), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

Research results

The poetic legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is of great value because in artistically describes the circumstances of prisoner’s life and his inner struggle. Besides, the poems written in the autumn of 1994 are the only evidence of the intensity of his intellectual labour. This is because his friend, Eberhard Bethge, was arrested in October 1944, and before the arrest he had to burn Bonhoeffer’s letters written in September. The discovery of these letters could seriously aggravate Bethge’s situation [1, p. 940]. As a result, only the poems written in the period from September to December 1944 remained (see Table 1).

Being imprisoned, Bonhoeffer did not shut himself up in his grief. Instead, he interpreted his situation existentially and in the letters addressed to his friend he noted that he was not suffering more than other people in the time of war [1*, p. 356]. Bonhoeffer expressed his thoughts primarily through the image of poetic persona, but two poems are written in the genre of spiritual poetry. J. Henkys, the scholar who studied Bonhoeffer’s works, noted that the form of just one poem, “Von guten Mächten“, resembled religious hymn. It was set to music several times and became well-known as a religious hymn [2, p.198]. The poem “Christen und Heiden“ in due course also entered the books of prayers [2, p.205].

Table 1. Quantitative and thematic analysis of D. Bonhoeffer’s legacy

Bonhoeffer wrote his first poem in June 1944 (see Table 1) during his intense theological work which was reflected in the letters to Bethge. His theological ideas were expressed with extreme brevity in his poem “Christen und Heiden”/ “Christians and Pagans” written on July 8th, 1944. It was the fourth poem out of ten Bonhoeffer’s poetic pieces. Incidentally, his earlier poetic works were of a more personal character. In his poem “Vergangenheit” / “The Past”, Bonhoeffer writes about love; “Glück und Unglück” / “Sorrow and Joy” interprets the situation of imprisonment through the Biblical ideas of happiness, and the poem “Wer bin ich?” / “Who am I?” is an expression of deep personal emotional experience brought to life by the situation of imprisonment and by the interpretation of the poet’s Ego in the world.

Later Bonhoeffer wrote the poems “Christen und Heiden” / “Christian and Pagans” and “Nächtliche Stimmen in Tegel” / “Night Voices in Tegel”, which can be classified as philosophical and spiritual lyrics.

The poems “Stationen auf dem Wege zur Freiheit” / “Stations on the way to freedom”, “Der Tod des Mose”/ “Death of the Moses” and “Jona”, written during his last period of im-

116

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 1 (24), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

prisonment, reflect Bonhoeffer’s spiritual decision to accept his approaching death as a sacrifice to his people. The autobiographical context can be traced in these poems: at the end of 1944 Bonhoeffer was planning to escape from the prison, but at some point of time he turned his plan down not to jeopardize his nearest and dearest [1*, p. 673].

Finally, Bonhoeffer’s poems “Der Freund” / “The friend” and “Von guten Mächten” / “By gracious powers” are deeply intimate in their content and are addressed to his friend and to the woman Bonhoeffer loved.

The period of April-December, 1944, was the most important for Bonhoeffer’s theological work. At this time Bonhoeffer thinks over his previously coined term nichtreligiöses Christentum / “Non-religious Christianity” and writes his poems. As J. Henkys notes,

Bonhoeffer’s poetry can be viewed, on the one hand, from the perspective of literary studies, since all texts are written in the form of free verse (“spiritual lyrics’, “meditative lyrics” / “Gedankenlyrik”), and from the theological point of view as a rhymed theology which is largely dependent on Bonhoeffer’s theological context [2, p.195].

In his poems D. Bonhoeffer gave a lot of thought to his approaching death, and this makes it possible to define his works as samples of philosophical lyrics (on the philosophical motives in poetry in more details see [5, p.50])2. At the same time J. Henkys noted that for Bonhoeffer poetry is a way to talk about theological questions not in the form of a treatise or a sermon, i.e. specific religious genres which require some prior knowledge and skills from their readers, but in the form of a verse, which can be easily understood by everyone. In this sense it is characteristic of Bonhoeffer’s lyrics to combine different traditions in one cultural space (on blending of traditions in Mandelshtam’s works see, for instance, [6, p.28]. Bonhoeffer’s poems were enclosed in his private letters to his friend [1*, p. 513]. As our study shows, to express his deepest emotional feelings and spiritual drama the language of poetry was more acceptable for Bonhoeffer then the lines of his private letters to his nearest and dearest.

J. Henkys pays attention to the fact that the genre of spiritual verse, to which some of

Bonhoeffer’s poems belong, unfolds itself from a new angle in Bonhoeffer’s works [2, p. 201]. Spiritual verse is a specific type of poetry writing. In the introduction to his book “Spiritual poetry”, Sergey Averintsev noted: “The one who wants to write spiritual poems, should strive to make his lyrics watch right ahead, look at the light, at the holy, without looking back at the author” [7, p.4].

Being a specific genre, spiritual poetry has liturgical, catechetical and exegetical / homiletic perspectives. It tells us about a well-known event and at the same time it presents a new moral sense, essential for the present: “Erzählt wird, was geschehen ist, und zugleich wird dessen Neuheit deutend zugesprochen und als Lehre entfaltet“ / “It tells us about what has happened and at the same time the novelty of the event and its teaching character become apparent [8, p.17].

Let us look more closely at the poem “Christen und Heiden“ / “Christians and Pagans“, enclosed in the letter from July 8th, 1944, to his friend Eberhard Bethge. The poem was written during the third period of Bonhoeffer’s imprisonment in Tegel. It is an example of spiritual poetry which reflects the writer’s philosophical and theological views.

Liturgical perspective of this poem is actualized in the frequent use of the poem in church services in Germany. Catechetical perspective comes into effect as the poem is the pivotal meaning of many sermons. Its homiletic perspective materializes in the meaning and structure of the poem itself, since it tells us about God’s free-willing acceptance of sufferings for every human.

2 “Any “deep” poetic work that touches upon general issues of life and death can be called “philosophical”. The poetry itself is aimed at portraying the live, individual and the bodily and flexible, while philosophical poetry is not alien to the world of abstract thoughts; its subject is the general, the generic, the substantial. In a concentrated form of images it expresses the self-consciousness of the epoch, uniting the general and the concrete” [2**].

117

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 1 (24), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

The poem expresses Bonhoeffer’s philosophical and theological views in a concise and brief manner. In this respect “Christen und Heiden” occupies a special place in his epistolary legacy: it is a metaphoric description of life journey of a man who suffers both physically and spiritually. He finds joy and comfort in God and his service to God. According to Bonhoeffer, the paradox of Christianity lies in the fact that the God needs a human just like a human needs the God.

Bonhoeffer emphasizes that the God suffers in this world, and a human can show compassion for the God. We can draw a parallel between Bonhoeffer’s poem and “The Requiem” written by Anna Akhmatova, in which she puts crucifixion in the center of her narration about dark years of repressions:

“To his father he said,

'Why hast thou forsaken me!' But to his mother,

'Weep not for me…”

This theme refers to the Gospel narrative and is reflected in many spiritual writings, for instance, in the old Latin hymn “Stabat Mater”, which is devoted to the sufferings of Holy Mother who is mourning over her Son’s death on the cross (see in more details [9, p. 278]). Despite differences in cultural traditions, both Akhmatova and Bonhoeffer turn to the plot of

Christ’s sufferings on the cross. This type of interpretation of Christ’s Passion is especially important for the time of Bonhoeffer’s life, when, on the one hand, a vast number of people died,

118

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 1 (24), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

and, on the other hand, the church and Christianity were viewed as means of achieving political and ideological goals, of gaining power over people under religious slogans.

The composition of the poem includes only three verses. This is the shortest

Bonhoeffer’s poetic writings. The composition is a “closed” one, since the most significant thoughts are accentuated at the end of each verse and at the very end of the poem. However, the text is dynamic and can be compared to an arrow flying towards its aim. The dynamic character of the poem is created by the dominance of multiple verbal sentences. The first two verses begin with the words: “Menschen gehen zu Gott / Men go to God”, but the third verse starts with the words “Gott geht zu Menschen / God goes to every man”. The last verse is the answer to the question of the meaning of God’s self-destruction. “The loopback” can also be traced in the rhythmic structure of the poem with its epistrophes: 1) Not – Brot – Tod / soar bested – bred – dead 2) Not – Brot – Tod / soar bested – bred – dead 3) Not – Brot – Kreuzestod/ soar bested – bred – hangeth dead. The fourth line of each verse makes a rhyme: Heiden – Leiden – beiden/ unbelieving – grieving – forgiving. Even the title «Christians and Pagans» contains contrasting notions, since Christians and pagans have contrasting views and dominant values. As the title of the poem contains paradox, oxymoron, so does the plot of Bonhoeffer’s poem unite

Christians and pagans to show the free-will death of Christ on a cross, who suffered in this world and died for both Christians and the faithless.

The first verse tells us that all people tend to turn to higher forces when they face difficulties: Menschen gehen zu Gott in ihrer Not / Men go to God when they are sore bestead. In the second verse Bonhoeffer identifies the difference between Christianity and other religions: the Christians come to God and see his sufferings, but stay with him trying to support him in need. The third verse tells us that God himself comes to people, both to faithless and Christians, and dies on the cross for all of them and, most importantly, forgives all of them.

The Encyclopedia of literary terms and concepts notes that the style of a literary work to a wide extent is defined by the amount of “the means of verbal figurativeness and expressiveness, tropes and figures, as well as passive vocabulary and words with limited sphere of use

(archaic words, neologisms, barbarisms)” used in the text [3**, p. 1035]. In Bonhoeffer’s poem the poet uses the simplest means of figurativeness, namely, the contrast, reiteration of words, climax and anti-climax.

As a rule, Bonhoeffer uses the words in their direct meaning to denote the details of the described world in the most precise way. Following G.N. Pospelov, scholars name this feature nominativity [3**, p. 1032]. Stylistically, only four words in the poem belong to the elevated style: the nouns Leib, Erretung and the verbs flehen и vergeben [4**]. The word Obdach / shelter has the mark “veraltet / obsolete” in the dictionary [4**]. The most striking stylistic device is the contrast, which is achieved with a seemingly simple means such as a pronoun: Christen stehen bei Gott in Seinen Leiden / The Christians stand by God in his hour of grieving.

In his poem Bonhoeffer raises everyday problems to the highest level. This effect is achieved by means of contrast: on the one hand, he uses the simple verbal sentences with coordinated parts for denoting the situation. On the other hand, he puts ordinary, stylistically unmarked words in the high context, for example: sehen ihn arm, geschmäht, ohne Obdach und

Brot / find him poor and scorned, without shelter or bread. And at the same time, see the third verse: sättigt den Leib und Seele mit Seinem Brot / Feedeth body and spirit with his bread.

The word Brot / bread does not have any stylistic marks in the dictionary, however, the context of the poem shows that this is a reference to the Bible. For instance, the Lord’s prayer (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verse 11) contains the words Give us this day our daily bread [3*], and in this context the word bread refers not only to bodily, but to spiritual needs of a human as well.

The antinomy of the heavenly and the worldly is expressed in the image of God being a weak human who is subjected to sin, weaknesses and death: sehen ihn verschlungen von Sünde,

Schwachheit und Tod/ Whelmed under weight of the wicked, the weak, the dead.

119

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 1 (24), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

At the same time, having died for humanity on a cross, a most despicable death in the Roman Empire, God forgives humans, i.e., he is not subject to death. This idea is the result of

Bonhoeffer’s theological reasoning on 1944. He devoted much time to thinking about the meaning of God’s sufferings and about Christianity as the radical change in religious beliefs of people. While in other religions a person turns to God as a supreme being and there is a certain distance between a human and God, in Christianity God itself is personified as a human and can turn to people for help when suffering on the cross.

The main verbal means to create a poetic image are syntactic and lexical reiterations. The lexical reiterations are created with verbs with concrete meaning and the chains of coordinated parts of sentences. The latter allow the author to vary the degree of intensity of an attribute.

The concreteness is manifested through the saturation of the poem with the verbs of concrete action semantics. They are organized in sequences of ascending or descending intensity of the action. For instance, the second verse begins with the words Menschen gehen / People go followed by finden, sehen / find, see, and finally stehen / stand: Christen stehen bei Gott in Seiner Leiden / Christians stand by God in his hour of grieving.

It should be noted that despite being unable to leave the prison cell and move actively, the author can transcend beyond the prison walls. Bonhoeffer uses the verbs in the present tense, which mark the “here-and-now” situation which can be expanded to “always and everywhere”.

This is how Bonhoeffer takes the events on a new, all-human and universal level and offers philosophical generalization of them.

Actions with high level of intensity are nominated with hyponyms. For example, in the first line Bonhoeffer uses the expression Menschen flehen / People beg. The verb flehen / beg has a stylistic marker “gehoben / high” [4**] and is a hyponym. Later the author uses a neutral hyperonymic verb bitten / ask from the synonymic chain in which the verb flehen means “to insistently ask for something”: 1) eindringlich, demütig bei jemandem um etwas bitten; 2) inständig, voller Verzweiflung zu jemandem beten [4**].

At the end of the first verse the verbs gehen, flehen, bitten / go, pray, ask are united by the verb with the most general meaning tun / do.

The deictic means include the reiteration of pronouns with the intensification of the attribute and concretization, for instance: So tun sie alle, alle, Christen und Heiden / All men do so, Christian and pagans. The pronoun alle is repeated several times in the original text, and this allows Bonhoeffer to unite the Christians and the pagans, i.e., people who have completely different views to life.

Syntactic parallelism is accompanied by the antithesis, anaphora and lexical reiterations. Every verse begins with similar lines.

The first lines of the first and second verses begin with the words Menschen gehen / People go, the third verse – with Gott geht / God goes. The second and the third lines contain coordinated elements, the forth lines contain the conclusion. Along with this the first two lines use parataxis which unites syntactically equal structures.

With the help of parataxis, i.e. structurally similar sentences, Bonhoeffer juxtaposes two situation. Apparently, this structure was not chosen by chance only: the author’s choice of syntactic structures reflects his philosophical views. It can be suggested that with these two grammatically equal structures he sets the Christians and the pagans equal in God’s eyes and at the same time lays emphasis on their differences.

Bonhoeffer also uses contracted sentences with one common part, namely, the subject

Menschen / people, to which a number of predicates is added: gehen, finden, sehen, stehen / go, find, see, stand. At the end of the verse the author makes a conclusion: Christen stehen bei Gott in seinen Leiden / The Christians stand with God to share God’s pain. This type of structure is also used in the first two verses of the poem. Hyponyms and hyperonyms (e.g., flehen, bitten / beg, ask) can also be interpreted as the means of syntactic reiteration. It is characteristic of the syntactic structure of the poem to use enumeration and the use of coordinated parts of sentence:

120

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 1 (24), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

bitten um Glück und Brot, um Errettung aus Krankheit, Schuld und Tod / plead for help, contentment, and for bread, for rescue from their sickness, guilt, and death.

The parts of the of the sentence are connected with the copulative conjunction, and, importantly, the author aligns the notions which are not alignable: Glück und Brot, Krankheit,

Schuld und Tod / contentment and bread, sickness, guilt and death.

It should be noted that the themes of the poem “Christen und Heiden” / “Christians and Pagans” are also discussed in other Bonhoeffer’s works and letters. A few days after the poem had been written, Bonhoeffer wrote to his friend:

Gott läßt sich aus der Welt herausdrängen ans Kreuz, Gott ist ohnmächtig und schwach in der Welt und gerade und nur so ist er bei uns und hilft uns. [1*, p. 534]/God allows himself to be edged out of the world and on to the cross. God is weak and powerless in the world, and that is exactly the way, the only way, in which he can be with us and help us. [2*, p. 164]).

God turns to his pupils for help in difficult times. He asks them to stay with him during his sufferings in the garden of Gethsemane. So, a human is meant to accept God’s sufferings in this world, and this radically changes religious beliefs about God. This is the topic of

Bonhoeffer’s theological letter to his friend written on July 18th 1944: “Könnt ihr nicht eine Stunde mit mir wachen?» fragt Jesus in Gethsemane. Das ist die Umkehrung vor allem, was der religiöse Mensch von Gott erwartet. Der Mensch wird aufgerufen, das Leiden Gottes an der gottlosen Welt mitzuleiden. [1*, p 535] /As Jesus asked in Gethsemane, ‘Could ye not watch with me one hour?‘ That is he exact opposite to participate in the suffering of God at the hands of a godless world [2*, p. 166].

In the same letter Bonhoeffer notes that repentance is connected not with a certain religious act or with one’s thoughts about his/her own passions and sins, but with acceptance of God’s sufferings:

Nicht religiöser Akt macht den Christen, sondern das Teilnehmen am Leiden Gottes im weltlichen Leben. Das ist die „metanoia“, nicht zuerst an die eigenen Nöte, Fragen, Sünden, Ängste denken, sondern sich in den Weg Jesu mithineinreißen lassen, in der messianisch Ereignis, daß Jes 53 nun erfüllt wird! [1*, S. 536] / It is not some religious act which makes a Christian what he is, but participation in the suffering of God in the life of the world. This is metanoia. It is not in the first instance bothering about one’s own needs, problems, sins, and fears, but allowing oneself to be caught up in the way of Christ, into the Messianic event, and thus fulfilling Isaiah 53. [2*, p. 166].

In this text, as well as in the poem “Christen und Heiden”, Bonhoeffer draws parallel with the texts of the four Gospels and the 53rd Chapter of Book of Isaiah which tells us about selfdebasement of God: “Surely he took our pain and bore our suffering”, he names certain lines of the Bible and refers to them. Bonhoeffer as a representative of the German intellectual culture, also refers to Martin Luther’s works:

Aber es ist schon gesagt, daß Gott nur in Leiden und Kreuz zu finden ist. [1*, S. 534] /

But it has already been said that God can only be found in sufferings and on the cross.

Thoughts about the meaning of sufferings can also be found in other Bonhoeffer’s works, especially in those written during World War II. For instance, in his letter to the Leibholz family, Bonhoeffer wrote that sufferings and Gof do not contradict each other, but are in unity. For Bonhoeffer, the fact that God also takes sufferings is the most convincing in the Christian teaching:

121

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 1 (24), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

So ist es gut, früh genug zu lernen, daß Leiden und Gott kein Widerspruch ist, sondern vielmehr eine notwendige Einheit; für mich ist die Idee, daß Gott selbst leidet, immer eine der überzeugendsten Lehren des Christentums gewesen (cit. ex [1*, S. 534]). / It is good to learn early that sufferings and God do not contradict each other; rather, they form a necessary unity. For me, the idea that God takes sufferings himself has always been the most convincing in the Christian teaching.

Conclusion

The analysis of the poem “Christen und Heiden” demonstrates that it is characteristic of Bonhoeffer’s individual style, as Eberhard Bethge noted, to be precise, clear and brief. Bonhoeffer’s writings also contain philosophical generalisations and antinomies; they are dynamic and logical, and demonstrate deep understanding of the problems discussed. A range of verbal and stylistic tools, such as reiteration, conceptual and formal contrast, enumeration with variation of the degree of intensity of the attribute, become the ultimate means to express the author’s message.

It should be noted that the text of the poem in rather expressive: despite the absence of epithets, the text marks the extremes, existential limits and uses lexical and syntactic means at their maximum. The poetic language of the poem “Christen und Heiden” correlates to Bonhoeffer’s theological writings and reflects features of his individual style of a preacher, pastor and Christian thinker.

To sum up, the poems of Dietrich Bonhoeffer express his philosophical views and spiritual path. Even as a prisoner, he was not overpowered by the heavy circumstances of his life in prison, and even by the real death threat, and this is also reflected in his theological and poetic works. Bonhoeffer could not come to terms with what was going on in Germany and till his last day he fought for human dignity. His last words known to us became the crown of his martyrdom: the is for me the end, but also the beginning [4*, p. 468]. So, it can be rightly stated that the truthfulness of Bonhoeffer’s theological and poetic words are verified and confirmed by his own life.

References

[1]Bethge, E. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Eine Biographie: Theologie. Christ. Zeitgenosse.

München: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1970. 1099 S.

[2]Henkys, J. Zu Bonhoeffers Gefängnisdichtung. Hinweise auf ihre Wirkungund Vorgeschichte // Bonhoeffer-Studien. Beiträge zur Theologie und Wirkungsgeschichte Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1985. S. 193-207.

[3]Tietz, Christiane. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Theologie im Widerstand. München: Verlag

C. H. Beck, 2013. 144 S.

[4]Horuzhij S. S. Uliss v russkom zerkale. M.: Azbuka, 2015. 384 s.

[5]Dolgaya E.A., Sinyavina L.V. Filosofskie motivy liriki N.V. Stankevicha / E.A. Dolgaya, L. V. Sinyavina // Nauchnyj vestnik Voronezh. gos. arh.-stroit. un-ta. Seriya

«lingvistika i mezhkul'turnaya kommunikaciya». – 2017. – vyp. 1 (24). – S. 49-56.

[6]Revyakina T.L. Osobennosti semanticheskoj poehtiki O. Mandel'shtama / T.L. Revyakina // Nauchnyj vestnik Voronezh. gos. arh.-stroit. un-ta. Seriya «lingvistika i mezhkul'turnaya kommunikaciya». – 2013. Vyp. 11. – S. 66-70.

[7]Averincev S.S. Stihi duhovnye. Kiev: Duh i litera, 2001. 148 s.

[8]Henkys, J. Dichtung, Bibel und Gesangbuch. Hymnologische Beiträge in dritter Folge. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht, 2013. 308 S.

122

Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 1 (24), 2019 ISSN 2587-8093

[9] Sedakova O. „Il nodo della vita”. La poesia come esperienza spirituale in Anna Achmatova e Osip Mandel’stam // L’autunno della santa Russia. Atti del VI Convegno ecumenico internazionale di spiritualita in Russia in un tempo de crisi e persecuzione (1917-

1945)”. Communità di Bose: edizioni Qiqajon. Pr. 267-292.

Analysed sources

[ 1*] Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Widerstand und Ergebung: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft // Sonderausgabe Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke (DBW), 17 Bde. München: Gütersloher

Verlagshaus, 2015, B. 8. 796 S.

Perevody: Evangeliya. Kniga Iova. Psalmy. Per. s drevnegrech. I drevneevr. – Kiev: Duh i litera, 2007. 520 s.

obrashcheniya: 03.12.2018).

123