Note 37 — Chapter XV · 1869-1872
Reading edition
A few words that occur in a letter of Mendelssohn to his sister Fanny Hensel are of interest here. 'Yesterday I read "Nausikaa" to Cécile in Voss' translation.... This poem is really irresistible when it becomes sentimental. I always felt an inclination to set it to music, of course not for the theatre, only as an epic, and this whole day I feel renewed pleasure in the idea' (p. 148 of Lady Wallace's translation of Mendelssohn's letters, 1833-1847).