Friedrich Hölderlin' 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.