The first five items in the song cycle are settings of poems by the German Romantic poet, Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843). The 6th movement is a commentary on Hölderlin’s last years, on the still relevant messages of his poetry - through the words of the 20th-century poet Paul Celan (1920-1970). The basis for this publication was the fair copy of Kurtág’s Hölderlin songs, dating from the end of the ’90s, which is held in the Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel.