Narcissus and Goldmund

by Hermann Hesse

loving, to him, was not a natural condition but a miracle.

I’m going because I must, because I have heard the call.”

For him there was only giving himself and loving, loving his praying friend in the night-dark church as much as the beautiful warm young woman who was waiting for him.

Your dreams are of girls; mine of boys.” For an instant his heart froze.

your eyes knew that happiness did not exist and that all that is beautiful and lovely does not stay with us long.

Oh, the gold in the eye of a carp, the sweet thin silvery down at the edge of a butterfly’s wing were infinitely more beautiful, alive, and precious than a whole roomful of such works of art.

Then he would be suddenly astonished to find himself sitting like an old man, talking about the travels and adventures of the past, when his true life was only now about to begin.

If I know nevertheless what love is, it is because of you. I have been able to love you, you alone among all men. You cannot imagine what that means. It means a well in a desert, a blossoming tree in the wilderness. It is thanks to you alone that my heart has not dried up, that a place within me has remained open to grace.”