Letters

                                                                       Him to Her, excerpts 1933, July 7, Munich
[...] I stepped down, trying not to look long at you, as if you were the sun, yet i saw you, like the sun, even without looking [...] Each time you happen to me all over again [...]

                                                                      Her to Him, excerpts 1933, July 10, Munich
[...] I like myself better when I’m with you [...]

                                                                      Him to Her, excerpts 1933, July 12, Munich
[...] You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how. [...]

                                                                      Her to Him, excerpts 1933, July 19, Munich
[...] I wish i fed upon your face by day and night [...] And you with true kind eyes always look back on me, fair as the moon and joyful as the light. [...] We would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows opens and the stars bright. [...]


                                                                      Him to Her, excerpts 1933, July 20, Munich
[...] Do I love you? My god, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches. [...] If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you. [...]

                                                                     Her to Him, excerpts 1933, July 21, Munich
[...] It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy; - it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others. [...]

                                                                     Him to Her, excerpts 1933, July 22, Munich
[...] I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough [...]

                                                     Her to a friend of hers, excerpts 1933, July 30, Munich
[...] Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. [...]

                                                                    Her to Him, excerpts 1933, August 3, Munich
[...] Soul meets soul on lovers' lips [...]

                                                                    Him to Her, excerpts 1933, August 5, Munich
[...] I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed [...]

                                                    Him to a friend of his, excerpts 1933, August 5, Munich
[...] By my soul, I can neither eat, drink, nor sleep; nor, what's still worse, love any woman in the world but her [...]

                                               Her mother to Her aunt, excerpts 1933, August 20, Munich
[...] Their love's like a red, red rose, that's newly sprung in June.[...] It is that happy stretch of time when the lovers set to chronicling their passion. When no glance, no tone of voice is so fleeting but it shines with significance. When each moment, each perception is brought out with care, unfolded like a precious gem from its layers of the softest tissue paper and laid in front of the beloved - turned this way and that, examined, considered. [...] Her love is entire as a child's, and though warm as summer it is fresh as spring [...]

                                                            Her to Him, excerpts 1933, September 21, Munich
[...] ....the way my body exists only where you touch me... the rest of me is smoke. [...]

                                                            Him to Her, excerpts 1933, September 29, Munich
[...] My hungry heart passes through a bittersweet pain. Tell me how far do you want to go? [...]

                                                                 Her to Him, excerpts 1933, Oktober 6, Munich
[...] Your sweet as sugar, red mouth, sucks all the words perfectly round. Even in the fight your lips do not surrender mine. On your glowing hot cheeks I burn my fingers. Even when you throw me to the ground, I see myself as the winner. Just what is with my will, making my will spineless! Your eyes look through me and can't perceive. When your hands touch me, they follow a plan. With your rough angels tongue, you pierce into me. [...]


                                                            Him to Her, excerpts 1934, February 29, Stuttgart
[...] Good or at least good enough I want to be for you , Without a word, because words are deceit, the opposite of good is unfortunately often well-intentioned, And my insecurity is exactly what it seems.. For my melancholy becomes light, my stubbornness also gives up in your presence. Your glory and blessing keeps happiness and mystery until you're mine. Homemade monsters line the path in the labyrinth of our future, in which we are trapped, Flood of fear and anger, I am but flesh and blood.
And if not good, then good enough for you. Build me a castle of solitude, dream yourself up, be amazed and keep silent, float, fall free until I rest in your safety. It doesn't take much to tell you all that matters to me is you. For my melancholy becomes light, my stubbornness also gives up in your presence. Looking into your world, exchanged two meaningful smiles, imagine what I like, intoxicated myself with the idea that I am calm. It doesn't take much to tell you all that matters to me is you. [...]

                                                                     Her to Him, excerpts 1938, March 5, Munich
[...] You and I, it’s as though we have been taught to kiss in heaven and sent down to earth together, to see if we know what we were taught. [...]

                                                                      Him to Her, excerpts 1938, June 28, Munich
[...] Now, I'm not going to deny that I was aware of your beauty. But the point is, this has nothing to do with your beauty. As I got to know you, I began to realise that beauty was the least of your qualities. I became fascinated by your goodness. I was drawn in by it. I didn't understand what was happening to me. And it was only when I began to feel actual, physical pain every time you left the room that it finally dawned on me: I was in love, for the first time in my life. I knew it was hopeless, but that didn't matter to me. And it's not that I want to have you. All I want is to deserve you. Tell me what to do. Show me how to behave. I'll do anything you say [...]


                                                     Him to his father, excerpts 1943, September 3, Munich
[...] She is a mortal danger to all men. She is beautiful without knowing it, and possesses charms that she's not even aware of. She is like a trap set by nature - a sweet perfumed rose in whose petals Cupid lurks in ambush! Anyone who has seen her smile has known perfection. She instills grace in every common thing and divinity in every careless gesture. Venus in her shell was never so lovely, and Diana in the forest never so graceful as my Lady when she strides through Munich [...] All this gladness in life, all honest pride in doing my work in the world, all this keen sense of being, I owe to her! And it doubles the gladness, it makes the pride glow, it sharpens the sense of existence till I hardly know if it is pain or pleasure, to think that I owe it to one - now, you must, you shall hear - stepping forwards with stern determination - to one whom I love, as I do not believe man ever loved woman before. [...]

                                                           Him to Her, excerpts 1943, September 17, Cologne
[...] It has made me better loving you ... it has made me wiser, and easier, and brighter. I used to want a great many things before, and to be angry that I did not have them. Theoretically, I was satisfied. I flattered myself that I had limited my wants. But I was subject to irritation; I used to have morbid sterile hateful fits of hunger, of desire. Now I really am satisfied, because I can’t think of anything better [...]   


                                          His fathers response, excerpts 1943, September 20, Frankfurt
[...] Oh the heart that has truly loved never forgets [...] To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life [...] I loved your mother against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. [...] Our hearts already bleed. Never loose hope! If you keep it up, that's what's gonna bring you back to us.

                                                            Her to Him, excerpts 1943, November 25, Munich
[...] You are my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest. [...] You are my heart, my life, my one and only thought.

                                                        Him to Her, excerpts 1943, December 24, Normandy
[...] I never told you. That the last two letters in your name are the first two in mine, a silly thing i never mentioned to you but caused me to believe that we were bound together [...]

                                                               Her to Him, excerpts 1944, January 31, Munich
[...] Why, darling, I don’t live at all when I’m not with you [...]

                                                         Him to Her, excerpts 1944, February 17, Normandy
[...] Always [...]

                                                                   Her to Him, excerpts 1944, March 4, Munich
[...] When I only wanted and was nothing, When I just stood there waiting, When in the cold I froze, When I couldn't find a word for you ... when I took the courage and spoke, When your proximity drew me, when it echoed in the ear, when I grew wings and I flew ... When I regained awareness, I saw when you reached after me, I was
Happy, if that state exists, When I was with you, I was in love [...]

                                                              Him to Her, excerpts 1944, March 31, Normandy
[...] And what about all that, we forget to say? What about all the beginning of sentences we never finished, left floating in the room? Anybody ever comes to pick them up? [...] Tonight and then the rest of our lives [...] And what about all the bedtime stories that sleepy ears keep on dreaming? [...] What are we going to miss out?
[...] Tonight and then the rest of our lives [...] And at some point long is long enough.And at some point I'll say, "Time flew by so fast." And what about anything we could and won't do? [...] Alone at the table as a former non-smoker and ask me
Mediomelomelanchodramatic. I'm gonna get inside me and when I get out
i am beside myself - And with you. [...]

                                                                    Her to Him, excerpts 1944, April 12, Munich
[...] I never gave you kisses. I stole them all from you. Off your lips. [...]

                                                                Him to Her, excerpts 1944, April 28, Normandy
[...] I never gave you any kisses, I received them all. On the mouth... [...]

                                                                      Her to Him, excerpts 1944, May 10, Munich
[...] Remember that summer, every daydream was rich of mosquito bits, it smelled like mud and grass, and with grass at the back of our knees, we spend every day at the lake, there's lemonade with wasps, And you and me and everyone got an ice, and even with wet hair it's still hot. And you were too beautiful to be truth. The sun warms our bellies and every now and then I hear a boat and through the closed eyelids it glows red. There's a rumble in the distance, small waves are making their way to the earthy beach and your shoulders on mine - mine is new land.  Don't think of the thunderstorm. And the days lasted for a long time, and we took the summer under the nails home. And I never want to believe again happiness is somehow different and somehow more than that with you. There. Then. [...]

                 Him in a little story he wrote while waiting, excerpts 1944, May 12, Normandy
“All hopes of eternity and all gain from the past he would have given to have her there, to be wrapped warm with him in one blanket, and sleep, only sleep. It seemed the sleep with the woman in his arms was the only necessity."

                                                                  Him to Her, excerpts 1944, May 23, Normandy
[...] Lying under such a myriad of stars. The sea’s black horizon. I rose and walked out and stood barefoot in the sand and watched the pale surf appear all down the shore and roll and crash and darken again. When i went back to the fire i knelt and imagined smoothing your hair as you sleep and i said to myself, if i were God i would have made the world just so and no different [...] If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If we were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.[...]

                                                                       Her to Him, excerpts 1944, June 1, Munich
[...] I love you. Come back to me.

                                                                   Him to Her, excerpts 1944, June 5, Normandy
[...] Tomorrow is the day. [...] Goodbye my lover. Goodbye my friend. You have been the one for me. Did I disappoint you or let you down? Should I be feeling guilty or let the judges frown? 'Cause I saw the end before we'd begun, yes, I saw you were blind and I knew I had won. So I took what's mine by eternal right, Took your soul out into the night. It may be over but it won't stop there. You touched my heart, you touched my soul. You changed my life and all my goals and love is blind and that I knew when. My heart was blinded by you. I've kissed your lips and held your head. Shared your dreams and shared your bed. I know you well, I know your smell. I've been addicted to you. I am a dreamer and when I wake this can't break our spirit, it's my dreams you take. And as you move on, remember me. Remember us and all we used to be. I've seen you cry, I've seen you smile. I've watched you sleeping for a while. I am the father of your child. I'd spend a lifetime with you. I know your fears and you know mine, we've had our doubts but now we're fine. And I love you, I swear that's true. I could not have lived without you.

                                                                  Her to Him, excerpts 1944, August 28, Munich
[...] Where are you? [...]

                                                            Her to Him, excerpts 1944, September 11, Munich
[...] Come back to me [...]

                                                            Her to Him, excerpts 1944, September 21, Munich
[...] Please [...]

                                                            Her to Him, excerpts 1944, September 23, Munich
[...] Please [...]

                                                            Her to Him, excerpts 1944, September 27, Munich
[...] Please [...]

                                                                  Her to Him, excerpts 1944, Oktober 1, Munich
[...] please [...]

                                                                Her to Him, excerpts 1951, Oktober 17, Munich
[...] Charlie grew so fast. He has your eyes. And your hands. [...] I miss you. [...]

                                                                   Her to Him, excerpts 1952, March 25, Munich
I say a word now and then, a rock falls on my heart. I throw it away and all roads go downhill. I smile and imagine you could see me. Friends ask how it goes, I'm saying it's gonna work. Because rarely, but sometimes, I still think about you. Rarely, but sometimes, I'll put a smile on my face. Rarely, but sometimes, I laugh when I'm out in the rain. Rarely, but mostly it hurts. Look back, paint me colorful pictures,
cheerful, relieve the pain, force me forward. Took every path away from you that presented itself, for stagnation is dead. Running through the day, through the beat again even though I'm bored with everything. sing and imagine if you could hear me.I can't mind in the world. Because rarely, but sometimes, I can still remember your songs. I guess sometimes when I don't say much, I fool myself. In fact, you are to me right where you've always been. Unreachable, apparently. Memories of moments with you, precious and rare, like diamonds of ice. Don't hold it too tight in my hand, because I know. They melt into tears, because I lack the cold. I never thought our days were numbered. How could I have held you? what was I supposed to tell you. If I met you right now, what would I want to ask you. Because rarely, but sometimes, I'm thinking of something. Rarely, but sometimes, I feel alone among a thousand people. Rarely, but sometimes, I want to scream, but don't let myself. You're gone, and for that, I don't hate you.