Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Crucified Minstral by Hanns Heinz Ewers

The Crucified Minstral has never been translated into English before. It is the story of a mime and his strange rendezvous with death. Here is the link:

The Crucified Minstral

Here is a short excerpt:

Then he stretched his arms out wide on both sides and looked up. The blue up there above laughed and sang as if it wanted to take him away from everything. If he raised his head a little he could see the ocean, blue with little white clouds just like those in the sky above. Blue, luminous, radiant blue! He sucked it in with his eyes, touched it with his hands, let it soak into all his pores.

He listened to the music of the blue colors, closed his eyes and still saw them perfectly. He felt a soothing languor as his limbs lay like a corpse. He longed to dissolve into the whitish blue mist that surrounded him like a soft gentle breath. Then it seemed to him as if his head rested on a woman's yielding breasts. He noticed her breathing as they lightly lifted and fell.

He felt so protected and cared for, he didn't want to move or open his eyes. He lay completely still, unmoving, as if he were slumbering. Now he breathed in a fragrance like peach blossoms. He noticed a thin white apparition near his feet. It was Lili. She knelt down and urgently pressed her pale childish cheeks against his shoe.

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