“Holy beings who have raised up young and eager lives,
A voice like a fearful and reverent night prayer.
“Here is a book worth talking about.”
Rainer Maria Rilke

“From the storms and vulgarity of the daytime world,
To retreat into night, dreams, and beautiful solitude—
I created an artist's dreamland for myself, an island of beauty.
"An Hour Beyond Midnight" is for readers who want to understand my path.
“It will be an extremely important book.”
Hermann Hesse

★ The first prose work by Hermann Hesse, the greatest German-speaking writer of the 20th century
★ Original translation by Diederichs Publishers in Germany, including Hesse's preface
★ The night visions of Hesse, the young, unknown poet who captivated Rainer Maria Rilke
★ Nine stories carved on the border between dream and reality, which became the seeds of 『Demian』.

Hermann Hesse, a German-speaking author who has been loved by countless readers around the world for over 100 years for his transparent, lyrical language and profound inner world surrounding self-transcendence.
The prose work 『An Hour Beyond Midnight』, which first made his name known in literary history, has been translated and published.
The 『One Hour Beyond Midnight』 presented this time is a complete translation of the original text, including Hesse's preface and all nine short stories, and is a faithful translation of the edition published by Diederichs Verlag in Germany in 2019.
Diederichs is also the publisher that introduced Hesse to German readers by publishing the first edition of One Hour After Midnight in 1899.

In 1899, Eugen Diederichs, the head of the German publishing house Diederichs, who had decided to publish a book by the young poet Hesse, who was still unknown at the time, said, “I do not think this book will be a commercial success, but I am all the more convinced of its literary value,” instilling confidence in Hesse as a writer.
Thanks to a discerning publisher, Hesse was able to publish "One Hour After Midnight," and he went from being an unknown poet to being called "the last knight of the brilliant Romantics." A few years later, with the great success of "Peter Camenzind," he rose to the ranks of famous writers.
Against this backdrop, 『One Hour Beyond Midnight』 is considered by researchers and avid readers to be the starting point of Hermann Hesse's literature and an important clue to opening up his world.

Among the anecdotes surrounding the response to this book, the admiration of Rainer Maria Rilke, considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, is particularly famous.
After reading this book by the then-unknown young poet Hermann Hesse, Rilke felt the birth of a great writer and praised it as “a book worth talking about, a holy being that has raised up young and eager lives, a voice like a fearful and pious night prayer.”
The value of a book that literary depicts the world of night, the most tranquil and deeply disturbing part of the human mind, was recognized at a glance by another great poet, Rilke.

This book, along with these anecdotes, was vaguely known to Korean readers who loved Hesse under titles such as 'One Hour at Midnight' and 'One Hour After Midnight'.
Translator Shin Dong-hwa, who translated the German original of this book into accurate and fluent Korean, chose the expression "hinter Mitternacht" in the title as "beyond midnight" instead of "midnight" or "after midnight," combining a noun referring to time and a noun referring to space.
It fully captures Hesse's poetic intentions, and the detailed origin of the title, which intertwines the concepts of time and space, can be found in the "Preface" to this book, written by Hesse himself.

“As for the title of my first collection of prose, its meaning was clear to me, but not to most readers.
I wanted to use the title to suggest the kingdom I lived in, the dreamland where I spent my poetic hours and days.
A place that is secretly located somewhere between time and space.
The original title was 'One Mile Beyond Midnight', but that expression reminded me too immediately of the fairy tale 'Three Miles Beyond Christmas'.
So, I decided to title it ‘An Hour After Midnight.’” (From the “Preface”)

Meanwhile, in terms of structure and content, this book consists of nine essays on night and dreams, beauty and romance, longing and melancholy, silence and solitude, etc., written by the young Hesse with full expression of his romantic sentiments.
A lush forest, a distant riverside, Botticelli's paintings, a palace built like a dream, a bountiful field where ears of wheat ripen yellow, etc. Each word unfolds a world of literary fantasy that stretches after the real world has fallen asleep, while at the same time, the lyrical atmosphere that melts into nature and the soul of a young poet who pursues art are vividly contained, making it a good companion on a quiet autumn night when you can't sleep.
Moreover, the book's appearance, which seems to symbolize the romance and solitude of the night, will be a beautiful moonlit gift to both readers who are reading Hesse for the first time and those who have been reading Hesse with great care.

“The disgust of life drove me away, the smoke of the cities and the noisy pleasures of their temples pushed me away.
My desire to see you grew with each passing day, even during the voyage.
Work and danger had made me rough, and solitude had freed my eyes from the haze of life I had left behind.
And when I saw your country, with its gentle hills, slowly rising from the bluer seas, my young heart learned a new and cheerful pride.
When I set foot on your land, I stretched out my prayerful arms toward its wonders, and I passed through your forests as one born again.”
--- From "Island Dream"

Have you ever been shipwrecked and seen someone swim toward shore? Have you ever, recovering from a serious illness, taken the first sip of fresh garden air and felt your blood regenerate and boil sweetly? That night, when I became aware of that inexplicable presence leaning down to me, a whirlwind of gratitude, peace, light, and happiness swept over me, just like the rescued man and the man recovering.
--- From "A New Life Begins"

I often wonder whose life will be tougher among us.
Whenever I have a creepy dream, I think to myself:
One day you will open your mouth and suddenly say to me one of the many things you have heard from me.
If those words came back unexpectedly, wouldn't I be shocked to death? Or would you leave me, carrying the burden of my confessions with you?
Wouldn't I feel like a rich man who entrusted his jewels to a child, who was passing through the crowded streets, a place of greed and greed, waiting for a chance to take them?
So each day I entrust you with a new treasure to guard, and each day I make you crave a new burden.
But do you know that I am not a cruel person? Or do you know better than I do?
--- From "A Conversation with a Silent Person"

As befits lowly children and warriors, it is noisy and cruel, and all day life is filled with insufficiencies.
Isn't every darkening evening a homecoming, an opening door, a hearing of all the sounds of eternity? You, my wondrous self, taught me how to return home and open my ears to the voice of eternity.
When the last door was ready to open on both sides before you, you said this to me.
“Have a sacred evening, and do not drive the silence of the evening out of your house.
Don't forget the stars.
“Because stars are the supreme symbol of eternity.”

--- From "To Madame Gertrude"