God

by Victor Hugo

Svako u sebi treba da pronađe Boga koji je svuda i u svemu. To je zaključak kome vodi iole pažljivo čitanje poeme Bog.
Za Igoa je religija čovekova unutarnja vrednost. Njegov Bog prebivao je samo u njemu, u bezdanima njegovog duha.

Genres: Poetry, France

First published December 1, 1960

About the author

After Napoleon III seized power in 1851, French writer Victor Marie Hugo went into exile and in 1870 returned to France; his novels include The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).

This poet, playwright, novelist, dramatist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, and perhaps the most influential, important exponent of the Romantic movement in France, campaigned for human rights. People in France regard him as one of greatest poets of that country and know him better abroad.

Reviews

[qwerty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ο μεγάς ρομαντικός, Victor Hugo, αντιστοιχεί τις απόψεις των ανθρώπων περί Θεού με ζώα (ένα προς ένα) και μας παρουσιάζει μέσω της προσωποποίησης των ζώων μια κλίμακα πίστεως, ξεκινώντας από το πιο άπιστο-άθρησκο ζώο και καταλήγοντας σε αυτό που πιστεύει περισσότερο απ' όλα. Το καθένα τους εμφανίζεται σαν όραμα στον ήρωα και ξετυλίγει την κοσμοθεωρία του και τα πιστεύω του μπροστά στα μάτια του έντρομου ανθρώπου, ο οποίος διψάει για Θεό και γενικότερα ζητάει απαντήσεις στα μεγάλα ερωτήματα της ύπαρξης.

Μια πολύ εντυπωσιακή και σκοτεινή παραβολή, ένα μακάβριο έπος γεμάτο συμβολισμούς, ένα αντιφατικό κείμενο που ξεκινά παραθέτωντας τη μικρότητα του ανθρώπινου νου μπροστά στο μεγάλο σύμπαν για να καταλήξει υμνώντας την πίστη στο Θεό και το μεγαλείο της φύσης. Μόνο ένας ογκόλιθος της διανόησης σαν τον Hugo θα μπορούσε να συλλάβει ένα τέτοιο έργο.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hugo’s epic poem is a meditation on Man’s search for meaning in the darkness, with multiple voices giving their own perspectives, ultimately leading to Hugo’s own understanding of God as the light -- or perhaps, more accurately, the soul as the light which is reflected in/illuminated through God. It’s very much a spiritual (and spiritualist) work that melds mysticism, Christianity, and pagan poetics. I thought Hugo’s verse was closer in substance to the philosophical musings on Nature and the Spirit found in the ancients (Lucretius, Heraclitus, and Democritus, in particular) than to the Romantic poets to whom this work is often compared (Blake, Coleridge, etc.). The critical study of Hugo's verse positions him in the Illuminist tradition. Although I have seen his verse described as Orphic, I have also read various critical works that call it voyant, "Promethean," and just plain Romantic.

In short, he's hard to pin down!

I could see why this epic would be so influential to poets such as Baudelaire and Swineburne, especially the sections in which Hugo attempted not to only portray the vast emptiness of the Godless void, but also to give voice to that emptiness, through the mystical “eye” of the Poet-as-seer, as well as through the observations of winged animals like bats.

This was certainly my favorite Hugo verse so far, but I also found it suffered the same problems I noticed in his earlier poetry: it’s long-winded, melodramatic, and striving so hard to be "sublime" that it just felt, at times, to be forced to the point of inauthenticity rather than inspired or Orphic. However, certain sections were inspired and sublime -- it’s just a question of wading through the rest of verbage to get to the choice moments.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll never be a great fan of Hugo’s verse, but I also think that this poem, more so that anything that comes before it in his oeuvre, is worth the read.

[Eduardo Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

La mitad de en medio es pesadísima y aburrida. Pero desde el principio y desde el final de la segunda parte (El ángel), se pone muy muy bien. Vale la pena.

[Briseida Alcalá · Rating 5 out of 5]

El poema como un universo que revela y enfrenta realidades, la comunicación como un legado vital y la belleza de las palabras como la persistencia que refleja la vida en la inspiración.

https://briseidaalcala.com/2025/02/27...

[Edgar Trevizo · Rating 2 out of 5]

¿Un poema enorme construido a base de enumeraciones tan tediosas como el inventario de las naves de la Iliada? No, gracias, para eso ya está Whitman, que por lo menos se ocupó de un tema más interesante: el hombre.