Solitary Individual Telegram Posts

I Must Go Walke the Woed So Wyld
End 15 c.

I must go walk the wood so wild
And wander here and there
In dread and deadly fear,
For where I trusted I am beguiled,
And all for one.

Thus am I banished from my bliss
By craft and false pretence,
Faultless, without offence,
As of return no certain is,
And all for fear of one.

My bed shall be under the greenwood tree,
A tuft of ferns under my head,
As one from joy were fled.
Thus from my life day by day I flee,
And all for one.

The running streams shall be my drink,
Acorns shall be my food.
Nothing may do me good
But when of your beauty I do think,
And all for love of one.

Alone Walkyng, In Thought Pleynyng
Late 15 c.

Alone walking
In thought plaining,
And sore sighing;
            All desolate,
Me remembering
Of my living;
My death wishing
            Both early and late.

Infortunate
Is so my fate,
That, vote ye what?
            Out of measure
My life I hate;
Thus desperate,
In such poor estate,
            Do I endure.

Of other cure
Am I not sure;
Thus to endure
            Is hard, certain;
Such is my ure,
I you ensure;
What creature
            May have more pain?

My truth so plain
Is taken in vain,
And great disdain
            In remembrance;
Yet I full fain
Would me complain,
Me to abstain
            From this penance.

But, in substance,
None allegeance
Of my grievance
            Can I not find;
Right so my chance,
With displeasance,
Doth me advance;
            And thus an end.

This mixing up of the holy with the sensuous is anything but pleasing to my taste; I cannot like men to set apart certain especial places, consecrate them, and deck them out, that by so doing they may nourish in themselves a temper of piety. No ornaments, not even the very simplest, should disturb in us that sense of the Divine Being which accompanies us wherever we are, and can consecrate every spot into a temple. What pleases me is to see a home-service of God held in the saloon where people come together to eat, where they have their parties, and amuse themselves with games and dances. The highest, the most excellent in men, has no form; and one should be cautious how one gives it any form except noble action.

[Goethe, Elective Affinities, Chapter VII.]

We then spoke upon religious subjects, and the abuse of the divine name. "People treat it," said Goethe, "as if that incomprehensible and most high Being, who is even beyond the reach of thought, were only their equal. Otherwise, they would not say the Lord God, the dear God (der liebe Gott), the good God. This expression becomes to them, especially to the clergy, who have it daily in their mouths, a mere phrase, a barren name, to which no thought is attached whatever. If they were impressed by His greatness they would be dumb, and through veneration unwilling to name Him."

[Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann, December 31, 1823.]

For the act of seeing is inward, and so too shall the rapture remain veiled.

Let heaven and heaven's creator mourn,
The fertile earth, the wandering wave
Upon the restless sea. And thou,
Who over lands and ocean's plains
​Dost shed thy light, whose beauteous face
Drives night away, O glowing Sun,
Grieve more than all. For equally
Thy risings had Alcides seen,
And eke thy settings; both thy homes
Were known to him. His spirit loose
From monstrous madness; loose him, ye
Who rule above. His mind restore
To sanity again. And thou,
O Sleep, subduer of our ills,
The spirit's rest, thou better part
Of human life, swift-winged one,
Astraea's child, of cruel Death
The sluggish brother, mixing false
With true, prescient of future things,
But oftenest of misery;
O sire of all things, gate of life,
Day's respite and the comrade true
Of night, who com'st impartially
To king and slaves, with gentle hand
The wearied spirit comforting;
Thou who dost force the race of men
Who quail at mortal doom, to gain
A foretaste of the sleep of death:
Subdue and overwhelm him quite
With heavy stupor; let his limbs,
Unconquered hitherto, be held
Fast bound in chains of deepest sleep;
Take not the spell from his fierce heart,
Until his former mind return
To its accustomed course.

[Hercules Furens, 1054-1081]

Then in my gown of sober grey
    Along the mountain path I'll wander,
And wind my solitary way
    To the sad shrine that courts me yonder.

Wynter Wakeneth Al My Care
Before 1340

And mention in the Book [the story of] Maryam (Mary), when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east. And she took, in seclusion from them, a screen.
Then We sent to her Our Ruh [angel Jibrael (Gabriel)], and he appeared before her in the form of a man in all respects.
She said, “Indeed, I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, [so leave me], if you do fear Allah.”
He said, “I am only the messenger of your Lord, (to announce) to you the gift of a pure boy.”
She said, “How can I have a boy, when no man has touched me, nor am I unchaste?”
He said, “Thus [it will be]; your Lord says, ‘It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter [already] decreed.’ “
So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a remote place. And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree.
She cried (in her anguish), “Ah! would that I had died before this! would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!”
Thereupon he called her from below her, “Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. So eat and drink and be contented. Then if you see any human, say, ‘Indeed, I have vowed to the Most Merciful abstention, so I will not speak today to any human.’ “
Then carrying him she brought him to her people. They said, “O Mary, you have certainly done a thing unprecedented. O sister of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste.”
So she pointed to him. They said, “How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?”
[Jesus] said, “Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and He has enjoined on me prayer and poor-rate so long as I live, and [made me] dutiful to my mother, and made me not arrogant, unblest. Peace be upon me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive.”
Such is 'Isa, son of Maryam – the word of truth about which they are in dispute.

Maryam [19:16-34]

Mit gelben Birnen hänget 
Und voll mit wilden Rosen 
Das Land in den See, 
Ihr holden Schwäne, 
Und trunken von Küssen 
Tunkt ihr das Haupt 
Ins heilignüchterne Wasser. 
Weh mir, wo nehm ich, wenn 
Es Winter ist, die Blumen, und wo 
Den Sonnenschein, 
Und Schatten der Erde? 
Die Mauern stehn 
Sprachlos und kalt, im Winde 
Klirren die Fahnen.

[With yellow pears full-laden 
And covered with wild roses 
Land slips into lake, 
You swans alluring, 
And drunken with kisses 
Dipping your heads 
In sacred-sobering water. 
Ah me, where will I, when 
The winter’s come, find flowers, and where 
The sunshine and 
The shadows of the earth? 
The walls all stand 
Speechless and cold, the wind-caught 
Weathervanes clatter.]

❄️ Hölderlin, Hälfte des Lebens/ Half of Life