Winfried Sebald - A Place in the Country

2 exceedingly obliging hostIn his notes to the poem “In Alfermée” in Across the Land and the Water , Iain Galbraith identifies the “exceedingly obliging host” as the critic Heinz F. Schafroth. In the September 1985 issue of Manuskripte (25: vol. 89/90), an article by Schafroth on Robert Walser (“Robert Walser oder die manipulierte Buchhaltung”) immediately follows Sebald’s article “Das Gesetz der Schande — Macht, Messianismus und Exil in Kafkas Schloß.”

3 “Il me semble”“It seems to me that, in the shade of a forest, I am forgotten, free, and undisturbed, as if I no longer had any enemies” ( Reveries of the Solitary Walker , trans. Russell Goulbourne [Oxford: World’s Classics, 2011], p. 79).

4 “I ha in schwarzer Wetternacht”Hebel, “Der Bettler” (translation by JMC).

5 “un jour cette petite île”“one day this small island will astonish Europe.”

6 “linge, habits, vaisselle”“the simplest comforts of life …: linen, clothes, plates and dishes, kitchen utensils, paper, books — all these would have to be taken with me” ( Confessions , Book XII: pp. 699–700).

7 in order to hasten the momentJean Starobinski, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Transparency and Obstruction , trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1988). Sebald quotes from the German translation by Ulrich Raulff (see the Bibliography). Goldhammer’s English translation has been adapted in places (here and below) to follow Sebald’s (and thus Raulff’s) German more closely.

8 the long stamens of self-healSebald has Braunwurz , i.e. a plant from the Scrophularia or figwort family, possibly referring to S. canina , dog or French figwort, which has longer stamens than the common figwort, S. nodosa . The original Rousseau text has brunelle , i.e. Prunella vulgaris , or self-heal, which in German is usually known as Brunelle .

9 the seed capsules of balsam and of beechSebald writes Buchkapseln , i.e. the “seed capsules” of beech ( Buche ), in other words beechmast, although in Rousseau’s French text we find buis (box) — which in German is Buchs . However, Buch is the German for book, and Buchkapsel also translates as “book box.” We may assume the German pun to be intentional.

10 Johann Joachim BecherSebald’s text has “Becker.”

11 “His very dog”In English in the original.

12 “and that Mrs. Garrick”In English in the original.

WHY I GRIEVE I DO NOT KNOW

1 Why I grieve I do not know“Was ich traure weiß ich nicht,” from Eduard Mörike, “Verborgenheit” (“Seclusion”), in Mozart’s Journey to Prague and a Selection of Poems , trans. and intro. David Luke (London: Penguin Books, 2003), pp. 94–95.

2 “Nach der Zeit ein Müller fand”Eduard Mörike, “Der Feuerreiter” (“Fire Rider”), trans. Raleigh Whitinger in Nolten the Painter (Rochester, N.Y., and Woodbridge: Camden House, 2005), p. 20.

3 WaiblingerWilhelm [Friedrich] Waiblinger (1804–1830) was a contemporary of Mörike’s at the Tübingen Stift (a seminary which served to prepare Protestant pastors in Württemberg) and is often referred to as “Der wilde Waiblinger.” His poems were later collected and published by Mörike in 1844.

4 the Holy AllianceThe Holy Alliance or Grand Alliance between Russia, Prussia, and Austria (1815), later joined by Great Britain and (in 1818) France. It came to an end with the outbreak of the Crimean War (1853).

5 Kotzebue’s murderer, SandAugust Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761–1819), prolific German dramatist. Apparently detested by nationalist liberals, he was stabbed to death by the theology student Karl Ludwig Sand, a militant member of the Burschenschaften or student dueling societies. The incident led to Metternich’s Carlsbad Decrees restricting academic and other freedoms.

6 Stuttgart LiederhalleA series of concert halls in Stuttgart, first inaugurated in 1864 (Mörike was invited but could not attend, and declined in verse). Destroyed in 1943, it was replaced in 1955 by a new building and still functions as a cultural and conference center under that name today. The present Literaturhaus Stuttgart, in an adjacent building, was inaugurated by W. G. Sebald in November 2001 (see his essay “An Attempt at Restitution” (“Ein Versuch der Restitution”) in Campo Santo , trans. Anthea Bell).

7 Ludwigsburg, UrachThese Swabian towns in the region of Stuttgart and the surrounding area represent a chronological sketch of Mörike’s rather restless life. It is no coincidence that the list ends with Fellbach; the Mörike Prize, which Sebald received there in 1997, and for which occasion this text was composed, commemorates the fact that in 1873 Mörike moved there for a while with his younger daughter, Marie, following the separation from his wife, Margarethe.

8 from the AdigeThe original alludes to the opening verse of the German national anthem (no longer sung): [“Von der Maas bis an die Memel, /] Von der Etsch bis an den Belt” ([“From the Meuse to the Memel, /] From the Adige to the [Little] Belt”). In other words, from the Alps to the Baltic.

9 “The clock was … heartfelt pleas” Nolten the Painter , trans. Whitinger, pp. 112—13 (translation adapted).

10 Berté’s Dreimäderlhaus Das Dreimäderlhaus ( The House of the Three Girls ) was a hugely successful 1916 Viennese operetta giving a fictionalized account of Schubert’s romantic life, with music by Schubert rearranged by Heinrich Berté, and known in its Broadway adaptation (1921) as Blossom Time .

11 HimmelpfortgrundThe area of Vienna (now situated in the 9th Bezirk, Alsergrund) where Schubert was born. The name literally means “area of the gate of Heaven,” being the former site of a religious foundation (the Himmelpfortkloster, dissolved 1783).

12 “So ist mein scheuer Blick”Translation (from Mörike’s poem “Früh im Wagen”) kindly supplied by Ray Ockenden.

13 Peregrina“Peregrina,” trans. David Luke, in Mozart’s Journey to Prague and a Selection of Poems , pp. 72–73.

14 BlautopfBlue Pool (literally “blue bowl”) in Blaubeuren near Ulm, Swabia. In fact this episode is part of Lau’s dream. For an English translation of this story, see Eduard Mörike, Die Historie der schönen Lau / The Story of Lau, the Beautiful Water Nymph , bilingual edition with translation by Stan Foulkes, ed. Peter Schmid (Munich: Langewiesche-Brandt, 1996). While this edition has been consulted, the translations here are JMC’s own.

15 Schachzagel, Bartzefant “chess set,” “servant,” “evening round the fire spinning” (cf. sewing circle), “spinning top,” “advantage.” The meaning of the terms seems less important here than the archaic impression conveyed.

16 Fastnacht Southern German form of Fasching: pre-Lenten Carnival, the German equivalent of Mardi Gras / Shrove Tuesday.

DEATH DRAWS NIGH, TIME MARCHES ON

1 Death draws nigh, time marches on“Her kommt der Tod, die Zeit geht hin,” Gottfried Keller, quoted in Adolf Muschg, Gottfried Keller (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1980), p. 145.