Dear You,
inspired by Rosemary's blog "Where Five Valleys Meet" http://wherefivevalleysmeet.blogspot.de/2015/10/return-to-rousham.html and the first of her gorgeous photographs I 'republish' a little story from my garden blog "Britta's Gardening in High Heels". (The next post will be on the narrowboat).
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
I sit in our garden in Hildesheim with a cup of tea and enjoy the sparkle and twinkle on the silky threads of the spiderwebs, glistening against the sunlight. When the air moves, silver and gold flash up.
Horizontal nets are spanned in the big box ball standing beside the rose arch, looking like miniature versions of the Olympic stadium in Munich.
Delicate silver gossamer, elfine trampolines.
They are better visible than the golden spider-webs that hang between the rose-twigs.
When in the morning hundreds of dew drops hang inside them, drawing the spider threads down like heavy jewellery and throwing out sparks in the sun, they could jauntily take part in any contest of jewellers.
Yes: Today I’m having Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
For that breakfast the spider is waiting, too, though for her a less sparkling day would promise more booty.
“Nothing is so finely spun/ it will come up into the sunlight” wrote Theodor Fontane in “Under the Pear Tree”.
But sometimes The Good needs a lot of time to triumph, and before the victims have discovered the gossamer it is too late for some of them: the sticky threads attach themselves around delicate wings, and by attempting to flee in panic they only entangle themselves deeper, till finally the Master of the Web puts an end to it all.
“Then we have to grab the last relic of resource, then we ask for the word “Existence”, I hear from the terrace of my neighbour, the philosopher, who apparently is dictating an essay, just as I indulge in profound reflections upon Elusiveness and Beauty.
The spider and I are eavesdropping - mesmerized.
“ We can turn towards the entities, die Wesenheiten, the things that ARE”, he continues, and the spider hopefully picks up knife and fork, “but then we have a problem.”
Confused the spider drops its cutlery, because till now it didn’t have one.
“How do we ascertain wether the entities are real or not?”
This, my good man, the spider giggles, is very easy indeed. And bites into that, what still Is - but will have Been very soon.
“The nature of Being”, “the Concrete”, “the Abstract”, all these words flutter airily past my ears, lightweight as spider threads.
A little bit sticks, but you cannot grasp it…
This is a little too subtle for me to understand Britta but I will remain an existentialist and hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteDear Rachel, "I said my, my, like the spider to the fly
DeleteJump right ahead in my web" - next time :-)
Beautiful - and I know the photos on Rosemary's post that brought it back to you. How well you have meshed the over-heard with the over-head! .......assuming that your pragmatic weaver of deadly jewels was overhead!
ReplyDeleteDear Pondside, thank you! Yes, topsy-turvy (I always longed to use this word once)
DeleteDear Britta - Thank you - I am delighted that my little photo inspired you to republish Breakfast at Tiffany's, and that you have also introduced me to the words of Theodor Fontane whom you mentioned looked like Thomas Hardy - I looked him up on Google and see the similarity.
ReplyDeleteDear Rosemary, your photo was really so lovely! The two poets both wrote about 'tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances'. - but maybe Fontane might have been more conciliatory, more forgiving (he is famous for his words "to let the number five be an even number" - and his characteristic is a poetic humour). By the way: he wrote very interesting about his journeys through England !
DeleteI shall endeavour to find out more about him and his journeys through England - forgot to mention, do you see Monty on German TV too?
DeleteWiki writes: "Fontane's books about Britain include Ein Sommer in London (1854), Aus England, Studien und Briefe (1860) and Jenseit des Tweed, Bilder und Briefe aus Schottland (1860). " - so a translation seems not to exist. Work for me to do? (Though: I love his novels like "Effi Briest" etc much more.)
DeleteWhat a beautiful picture is painted with words. The story took my breath away.
ReplyDeleteDear Emma, thank you! I wrote some years before when I still had my garden in Hildesheim, not only my (lovely) balcony in Berlin.
DeleteFascinating post. Perhaps die Wesenheiten could pass though spiderwebs and leave an idea of themselves --a pattern in dew. It would make interesting jewelry.
ReplyDeleteThank you, dear Geo., I think our neighbour was discussing Wittgenstein (but am not sure) - Wesenheiten might indeed pass through spiderwebs - elfish, will they be mirrored in dewdrops?
DeleteSo lovely - and I had not seen it the first time around! Thank you. x
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mrs. Black! I still have a bad conscience because Tom S. told me you live in Hungerford - where I was for a half day visit (staying at the feet of "Downton Abbey" with my friend Anne).
ReplyDelete