slowly gliding Polenz, its green and brown shimmer in the golden rays of the afternoon sun reminded me of her peculiar eyes. I discovered some beautiful flowers, and at once I thought, "If only I were now on such terms with her, that she would accept a nosegay from me." Then I lay on a steep slope listening to the soughing of the wind in the fir trees, and I said to myself, "Supposing I were a poet, then surely this moment would inspire me to create a poem, which would meet with her admiration, and through which my feelings might speak." Yes, I even found a theme. She was a problem that continually puzzled me, and "it seemeth to me"—this expression I found very poetical—that if I could only discover the solution, I might find "Life's Treasure." However, I could not get my words to rhyme, nor could I make any sort of rhythmic connection.
Darkness had fallen before I returned to Rathen. Only a small portion of the moon appeared dimly over the hill on which the villa was situated. Between the bushes and the garden, and in the shrubs near the brook, the fireflies were swarming. The little sparks peacefully floated to and fro, ascending and descending, as if they were tiny lamps carried by invisible elves. Sometimes a few leaves of a bush were lit up by a hidden firefly; now and again one flew up so high that against the sky it looked like a moving star. No other stars appeared; it was again sultry and calm.
On the previous evening also I had enjoyed this wonderfully ethereal phenomenon of the erotic of nature, and it was not only because of its being richer on this night that it touched me in quite a different manner, and put me into a most indescribable mood. And to be honest, what meaning is there in these everlasting examinations of
