Songs on the Death of Children

German poet Friedrich Ruckert's (1788-1866) youngest children died of scarlet fever, the pandemic of his age. Over a six month period in 1834, he wrote hundreds of laments that were published posthumously in the classic poetry collection Kindertotenlieder . Here in English for the first time, these evocative modern translations by a fellow bereaved father reveal "an honest grappling with grief" ( The Christian Century ). Each poem is accompanied by insights into the bereaved, along with personal