Lotte in Weimar Page #2

It is high time for you both

to be off to the Esplanade, to Aunt Amalia,

to announce our arrival.

Being an old lady, I must lie down

and rest for an hour or so.

I will follow you, as soon as I'm refreshed.

My honoured friend:

I am paying a visit to my sister,

with my daughter Charlotte,

for a few days in your town.

It is my wish to present my child to you;

and to look once more upon a face

which has become famous to all the world.

Weimar, Hotel Elephant, 22nd September 1816.

Your Charlotte Kestner, ne Buff.

Does it hurt?

Not at all.

Alas, I've never experienced all that.

It was never so tempestuous.

He only wrote it down that way.

Come in, little Clara.

Good day.

My child! You're already here.

How tall you are.

And where's dear Lottchen?

She's resting.

Come along!

Take the brat.

Make way.

The kiss won't remain our secret,

I shall tell my fianc.

He's kissed me.

On my lips.

On your lips?

Really?

He may well act the philanderer

for the time he's here.

His blue coat.

Yellow waistcoat, yellow pants.

Loafing.

The engaged couple now decided

to keep the beloved third party at a distance.

"so that he'll adapt himself to it",

Lottchen said.

He can never expect anything else from me,

besides good friendship.

Then he pulled a face.

Send it to him.

So that he'll have at least a souvenir.

We'll send it to him.

And the pocket Homer.

Translation by Vossen.

I am leaving you both in happiness

and will remain in your hearts.

Adieu.

A thousand times, adieu.

I am leaving you both in happiness

and will remain in your hearts. Adieu.

A thousand times, adieu.

He's gone.

He's gone.

He's gone.

He's gone.

He's gone.

He's gone.

He's gone.

He's gone.

He's ... he's ...

He's gone.

He's gone, Lottchen, isn't he?

He's gone.

He won't come back.

He's gone.

He - is - gone.

He's gone. He's gone.

He's gone! He's ...

the brute!

So senseless.

He almost stole from Kestner his beloved.

Almost.

With his aimless, untrustworthy wooing,

and the

irresponsible kiss.

The heroes flew,

like two black clouds

two black clouds,

chariots of the spirits

when the dark children of the air arrive,

to frighten the unhappy humans

[Ossian's songs]

What's the matter?

It's so good,

so extremely good.

Hans Christian,

Hans Christian is away on business again.

This is the house on the Frauenplan.

The prince of intellects.

What is it?

You cannot come in now.

It is only Mager.

I beg your pardon, Frau Councillor,

there's a lady here,

Miss Cuzzle from no. 19,

an English lady, a guest of our house.

Well?

Miss Cuzzle is apprised of Frau Councillor's

presence in the city and in this hotel,

and she urgently begs to be received,

if only for the briefest duration.

Tell the lady that I'm not dressed,

that I must go out directly, and that I regret.

I have no need to tell Miss Cuzzle,

she can hear herself, for she stands beside me.

She wants to have just a look for you.

If you please.

It would be very interesting for me

to see you only for a minute.

I wonder what's keeping dear Charlotte?

She's a draughtswoman.

She's already drawn portraits

of famous persons of half the world.

Metternich, Talleyrand,

Blcher, the Czar,

Kant's birthplace, Napoleon,

Schiller's widow,

everything signed too.

My dear, my dear!

You are Werther's Lotte,

aren't you?

Lotte?

Herself.

In Abruzzo a drew a ...

bandit-chief?

a captain of highway robbers.

A captain of highway robbers?

A genuine bandit-chief.

He escorted me back to safety later,

so that nothing should happen to me.

Escorted you?

I beg your pardon,

I regret to interrupt.

But Herr Dr. Riemer would deem it a favour

if he might present his respects to the Frau Councillor.

What is it, Mager?

Herr Doctor Riemer? What Herr Doctor Riemer?

Are you announcing another caller?

What can you be thinking of! I must dress and go out.

What time is it?

Farewell, my dear child. I'm expected elsewhere.

Tell the gentleman

that I've already left.

Very well.

But the visitor is Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Riemer,

the confidant and companion

to His Excellency the Privy Councillor.

It might not be impossible

that Herr Doctor bears a message ...

In my nightgown,

and the disorder of this room? No! No!

There's a parlour on the first floor.

Ah, yes.

That might be ...

???

Am I like that?

Yes, it has a certain likeness.

You want my signature?

A most valuable sheet.

And a document of permanent significance.

In here please.

But I've no time.

- I'm in a hurry.

- If you please.

By the way, it was not at all easy

to get access to you.

Not easy?

If Frau Councillor would care to ascertain herself ...

Good Heavens!

It's the doing of that disastrous enthousiast,

that Mager.

Get back, everybody.

Get back.

People, be reasonable.

Get back.

The town is like a stirred-up ant-hill.

Everybody is hoping to catch a glimpse of your person.

Those people at the entrance

are waiting for you to leave the house.

That Mager!

Make way.

Disperse.

Great things are going on here today.

Keep back.

Don't push.

You can't disturb the master now.

Yes.

For nine years I served the genius.

And since four years I teach at the local Gymnasium.

It became a matter of manly honour;

in one way or another I had stand on my own feet.

One might ask why my illustrious friendship

with the Privy Councillor

did not to procure the position at a German University

I was yearning for.

But no. The rewarding little word

from a high source was not forthcoming.

Great men have other things on their minds -

they cannot dwell on the individual welfare of their servants,

no matter how deserving they might have been.

I'm listening with great interest.

But tell me,

all humanity knows quite well

that you and your dear departed husband have suffered

because of the indiscretions of the genius,

mixing truth and fiction with that dangerous art.

You have suffered from the ruthlessness,

the offence against loyalty,

when he went behind the backs of his friends, secretly,

to desecrate the tenderest relations

that can exist between three persons.

But weren't you ...

weren't you happy in his service?

But I was, my dear lady.

Just imagine:
the daily contact,

the daily intercourse with such a man!

An incalculable genius,

as I was poet enough to perceive.

Careful.

Always in a hurry.

Hello, I'm so glad to see you.

I'm very glad, yes.

I didn't see you.

Come in.

Often he made me think of a Damascene blade,

though I have forgotten the precise connection;

or of a Leyden jar,

in the sense that he was charged,

highly charged.

He had, as I remember,

a peculiarly open gaze.

- Has he the same eyes today, I wonder?

- The eyes.

The eyes are often powerful.

Why shouldn't I ask you,

what I've asked myself so often in those past 44 years?

What sort of youth is that,

who himself fails in that independent seeking out and finding,

and comes along, a third party, to make love to a girl

whose bloom is destined for another?

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