Elegies

Friedrich H lderlin' 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.