Wagner's Letters

Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck

Undated · Zurich

Letter

[April or May 1858?] I have just been reading [Calderon's] holy " Ferdinand " and found it very beautiful and touching. Perhaps it was my frame of mind. Were death foretold me surely for this year, I should embrace it as the most fortunate and consecrate of all my life. Only the uncertainty, how long remains for us to live, makes us frail and prone to sin ; that certainty, however, would hallow me completely. — How were it to be gained, that certainty so ardently I yearn for ? —

Richard Wagner

Source: Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck, translated by Ellis, No. 51

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