Elegies

Friedrich Hölderlin' Elegies are composed, like the elegiesof ancient Greece, in elegiac couplets, where an hexa -meter is followed by a pentameter.¿ey were often revised by the poet. ¿e versions presented here are the last ones, more rarely publishedand translated. ¿eir main themes are one's return, to the homeland(¿e Wanderer, Homecoming, Stuttgart), to lost love(Menon's Lament for Diotima), to the spirit of Greece priorto the disenchantment of the world (Bread and Wine), andthe welcome of Nature (¿e Walk in the Country).In the hope of giving an idea of the music they produce,the present English translations strive to reproduce theirmetrics.