MM N 632.Literary sketch

Literary sketch. “She was a swan –”

MM N 632, p. 1

    She was a swan –

    It glided with its long white
slender neck slowly across the water –

    It looked about with kind eyes
Its graceful lines were reflected
in the water –
together with the clouds in the sky

    I lived down there
poked about amidst blue-black vermin
– greenish-brown slime – and all sorts of hideous creatures –

    [I] floundered around in the mire
remembering a time when I did not
have all that mire in my bronchia
when I lived up there –

    Then I was frightened by my own shadow
and I had to return to the bright colours –
I forced my way up –
It was blindingly white

MM N 632, p. 2

    – there was the swan

    I reached out to it with my hands
it approached me slowly
I thought I could touch it
press its white breast
to mine – rest my head in its down

    The water surrounding me was muddy
and in it I glimpsed my countenance
which was terribly pale –
– I saw that it was frightened –
I heard a scream – and I knew
that it was I who had screamed –

    The swan was far off – where
the unruffled water reflected
its graceful lines and the sky’s
bright clouds –

MM N 632, p. 3

    It would not come any closer
– And I saw that I was
surrounded
by mire – and the swan
was afraid of the mire –

    The Swan was far off
– where the limpid
water reflected
the sky’s white clouds