Friendship

de HÖLDERLIN, Friedrich

When men know the men inside,
They can happily call friends,
The lives of men and is much better known,
They find it more interesting in mind.



The high spirit is not far from friendship,
Men have fun with harmonies and love
The intimacy, and live for Culture,
This too is given and to humanity.


On 20 May 1758 Your very humble subject,
SCARDANELLI.

(Friedrich Hölderlin, "Freundschaft" in bilingual anthology of German poetry, Paris, Gallimard, (Library of Pléiade), 1993)