120
Walser / Hamburger
choice of these verses – following on from his setting of Höölderlin’s late verse – also mainly occasional – his SCARDANELLI. (When asked in his asylum years whether he was still writing, Walser replied: ‘I’m here not to write but to be mad’ – a very sane and sensible answer.)
1Aside
I take my daily walk; this leads not far or wide and home; then without talk or sound I’m put aside.
2Snow
It’s snowing, snowing, covers the earth all round with a heavy mound, so wide, so wide.
So sorely it staggers down from the sky, this whirl all away, the snow, the snow.
This gives you, oh, an enlargement, a rest, this world by whiteness oppressed makes me weak.
So small at first, then great, my yearning turns to hot tears that invade me, burning.