Odes and Elegies

Powerful translations of a seminal figure in modern poetry

Gladly the boatman turns home to the river's calm
From his harvest on faraway isles;
If only I too were homeward bound;
Yet what harvest have I but sorrow?—

O blessèd riverbanks that raised me,
Can you ease the sorrows of love? Ah, when I come
To you, woods of my youth, will you
Grant me peace once again?
—From "Home"

For more than a century, Friedrich Hölderlin has been considered one of the key figures in modern European literature. ...