Lucerne, April 10, 59. So the child is teaching the master! — This one thing, that was only to be won by experience, was new to me too through its startling veracity, and triumphantly leavened each pang at the last: — only because there is no such thing as severance, for us, could we go through this re-meeting! I, too, was almost amazed at the feeling of absence of all surprise ; it was as if we had parted but an hour since. — That is a miraculous soil, from which some glorious thing must flourish yet. Ay, I foretell it : — we yet may yield much happiness ! — This noble, heavenly feeling will ever prompt my Lady-friend more actively, strengthening her, and giving her that inflexible serenity which 1 18 WAGNER TO MATHILDE WESENDONCK preserves to us eternal youth. — Let her repose ! I also am reposing, as a man just recovered from death ! — The third act is begun [yesterday]. It shews me distinctly that I shall invent no new thing any more : that one supreme blossom-tide awoke within me such a multitude of buds, that I now have merely to stretch back my hand, to rear the flower with easy tilth. — It also is to me as if this seemingly most sorrow-burdened act will not so sorely harass me as one might think. The second act still taxed me severely ; Life's utmost fire flamed up in it with such unspeakable fervour, that it burned and consumed me almost personally. The more it quenched toward the close of the act, and the soft radiance of death's transfigurement emerged from the glow, the calmer I myself became. That portion I will play you, when you come. — Now all I hope for, is a good ending ! — But I can hardly wait much longer for your visit. Imagine it ! a Kobold brought me yesterday a whole teaservice, and with the best of will I cannot inaugurate it all by myself. Perhaps you're not aware that I brought away with me a very fine big cup which another Koboldchen had sent to me at Venice, and out of which I always drink ? So what am I to do with all these lovely new, delicate cups ? O do come soon, to install them ; I promise you, you shall be pleased with my quarters already. — But — seriously, was not the gift too rich ? I almost thought so. What say you? — Wasn't it too much? — You'll be astonished at all the tokens of you you'll find with me ! — Now, write me when Wesendonck is coming back ; then I'll present myself one afternoon again, — if I didn't weary both of you too much the last time. — My love to Myrrha — also to Karl, who gave me an uncommonly prepossessing surprise. I called him Siegfried at his birth, and thus became his uninvited sponsor in my brain. And truly that christening has brought him luck : see what a splendid urchin he is growing ! — Are you not glad ? — Adieu ! All's well and beautiful ! To the noble heart the world is fashioned from within ; only to the common dolt does it arise from without. Life is ours ! — A thousand greetings ! Your R. W.
Richard Wagner
Source: Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck, translated by Ellis, No. 65