Op. 6 was originally an unpublished cycle for solo guitar, of which Kurtág transribed two movements for cimbalom in 1973 and added two further movements. He borrowed the specific title from the volume of poems of János Pilinszky published in 1972, paying tribute to a poet who was particularly important to him in the 1970s. The jewel of the cycle is the slow closing movement, with which Kurtág commemorates his former sonata partner and friend, the Romanian violinist Stefan Romaşcanu, who passed young.