Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman Read online

  and even the sirens were drowned out, the ever louder drone of the bombers, the blasts of explosions and the collapsing of houses, the screams and the cries of the wounded, the grave tones of the Wehrmacht reports on the radio were drowned out and all the noise of the war,

  so she wished for other, much louder chorales against death, chorales must ring out day and night, and all the stops of the organs must be pulled out until the war was over, and everybody must join in the singing at once, Schwester Ruth, Schwester Luise and she had to be just the start, everybody in her row, everybody in the church, the whole of Via Sicilia, the whole of Rome, the whole of Europe must join in and sing one chorale after the other without pause,

  even the soldiers, as they had in the time of Frederick the Great, all generals on all fronts, Christians, heathens, Jews, communists, everybody must take a deep breath and join together in a monumental Praise the Lord, just as her father, the captain, had sung it with such power, so that it would be impossible to do anything but join in at the top of one’s voice and praise the mighty King of all honour,

  everything had its place beneath this heavenly canopy of music, even the wonderful stillness which descended with resonant vibrations at the end of the final bar, a detached, happy stillness which reflected her inner stillness, half a minute of silence, disturbed neither by applause nor restlessness, which corresponded with her happy silence and made her think that the loveliest thing in wartime was tranquility,

  and she resolved to write a letter that very evening, and to retain in her heart as much as possible of what she had seen on her walk and had felt beneath the heavenly vault of the music, and to relate it all to her beloved far away in Africa, today if possible, after supper, in a long letter.

  * * *

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  Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman

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  SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG

  About the Author and Translator

  AUTHOR

  Friedrich Christian Delius is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary German writers. He was born in 1943 and lives in Berlin and Rome. His first poetry collection appeared in 1965. Since then he has published fourteen novels, five poetry collections and has recently written the libretto for the opera Prospero by Luca Lombardi. His books have been translated into seventeen languages.

  TRANSLATOR

  Jamie Bulloch has been working as a professional translator from German since 2001. His most recent works include The Sweetness of Life by Paulus Hochgatterer for MacLehose Press and Ruth Maier’s Diary for Harvill/Secker.

  Copyright

  First published in English in 2010

  by Peirene Press, 17 Cheverton Road, London, N19 3BB

  www.peirenepress.com

  This ebook edition first published in 2011.

  Originally published in German as BILDNIS DER MUTTER ALS JUNGE FRAU

  Copyright © 2006 Rowohlt - Berlin Verlag GmbH, Berlin

  This translation © Jamie Bulloch, 2010

  This work has been translated with the financial support of the Goethe-Institute through German Foreign Office funding.

  The right of Friedrich Christian Delius to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  All rights reserved . This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  ISBN 978–1–9086700–1–4

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Designed by Sacha Davison-Lunt.

 

 

  Friedrich Christian Delius, Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman

 

 

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