Interpreting and Understanding Poetry from the Viewpoint of Philosophical Hermeneutics

Language has an important place in philosophical hermeneutics. The experience of human life is an area of being which is identifiable only through language. Language is a mediator through which understanding takes place. All understanding is interpretation, and all interpretation forms within the frame of language. According to Gadamer, truth is disclosed to us on the event of understanding, and this disclosure relies more than anything else on a state of openness and dialogue. The relationship of language and being is reflectional. Language essentially has a reflective nature and makes possible for being to be disclosed through speech and conversation.In Gadamer’s view, poetry and thought share a common ground. Poetry is an area within which thinking takes poetical form. The poet becomes able to hear the calling of existence through poetical empathy and liberation, and he thereby approaches the nature of existence.A common element between the poet and the thinker, in addition to their empathy with existence, is their involvement in language. They disclose themselves in language, as though being only discloses itself through poetical thinking and thoughtful poetry.Now the question is: How does the disclosure happen? How can the interpreter approach understanding of poetry? Is this understanding possible through method, or does Gadamer suggest another path to interpretation? The present paper aims to explore Gadamer’s views on the relationship of understanding and truth, that of language and existence, and of poetry and its interpretation.