Elegies

Friedrich Hlderlin' Elegies are composed, like the elegies
of 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 published
and 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 prior
to the disenchantment of the world (Bread and Wine), and
the 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 their
metrics.