Aphoristic Writings, Notebook, and Letters to a Friend, by Otto ...

One thing: Write and say nothing to anyone of what now goes around in your head
and you exhort. Not to Sch 51 . either, and certainly not to me at all.
Are the B.s in P.? 52 (Forgive me! A long chain of association!) And what does one
hear about Ms. K and Count Good-for-nothing? And . . . write me yet something
about this year’s P. and your relationship to it, what you are doing if you are not
learning. – I have now seen the real Sistine Madonna. She is – beautiful. But not
meaningful; not magnificient, somehow not moving. And the people before it! I
amused myself heartily. There are far more outstanding paintings here.
One have I found, a deep knower of Woman: Palma Vecchio. I don’t know
whether you have seen his pictures. It interests me however, what you think of
Raphael’s Madonna.
*
See you!
(Stenographed) 15th August 1902
In a train carriage to Sassnitz.
Hearty thanks for your letter that was forwarded to me from Dresden.
After you yourself brought the conversation upon the topic that I, making
allowance for your mood, was avoiding addressing, so will I only remark, that I have
predominantly contradicted you in one point, which I appear to have rightly
maintained . . .
That she is lustful, mendacious, coquettish, that she immediately springs into
action as soon as anyone seems to take less note of her, that she will leave standing
anyone who courts her naively and admires her openly – indeed that she has all of the
prostitute in her, is not so new to me as you seem to think, and has also stirred me less
than the observation I made shortly before I left, that in all these qualities she does not
suffer, and does not control them, does not hold herself in check.
You have much too good an opinion of me, which I see again and again.
Admittedly even this confession that I make to you is again accompanied by my
accursed vanity.
The feeling of not being able to love again, I unfortuantely know very closely. I
cannot fully believe that of you. I hope you are agreeable with this first shorthand.
51 Schiffmann. [Trans]
52 Possibly refers to a family surname beginning with “B”, who have returned to Pürkersdorf. [Trans]
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