Read Online Group Portrait with Lady by Heinrich Böll - Free Book Online
Authors: Heinrich Böll
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further confirmation (Margret and B.H.T.).
When Leni feigned illness, which happened more and more often as time went by, she was sometimes allowed even to smoke a cigarette in Sister Rahel’s little room; Rahel explained that at Leni’s age, and for a woman, more than three to five cigarettes was not good. When she grew up she should never smoke more than seven or eight cigarettes, certainly remain below ten. Who would dare contradict the value of education when it can be stated that at forty-eight Leni still adheres to this rule, and that she has now begun, using a sheet of wrapping paper measuring five feet by five (in the present state of her finances, white paper of this size is more than she can afford), to realize a dream for which she has hitherto lacked the time: to paint a faithful picture of a cross section of
one
layer of the retina; she is actually determined to reproduce sixmillion cones and one hundred million tiny rods, and all this with the child’s paint box that was left behind by her son and for which she occasionally buys additional little cakes of cheap paint. When we consider that her daily output is at most five hundred rodlets or conelets, her annual output roughly two hundred thousand, we can see that for the next five years she will be fully occupied, and perhaps we shall understand why she has given up her job as a florist’s assistant for the sake of her rod- and cone-painting. She calls her picture “Part of the Retina of the Left Eye of the Virgin Mary alias Rahel.”
Is anyone surprised to learn that Leni likes to sing as she paints? Texts to which she randomly adds Schubert and folksong elements and what she hears on the program “Around the Home” (Hans), mixed with rhythms and tunes that draw from a Schirtenstein “not only emotion but attentiveness and respect” (Schirtenstein). Her song repertoire is obviously more extensive than her repertoire on the piano: the Au. is in possession of a tape made for him by Grete Halzen to which he can scarcely listen without the tears streaming down his cheeks (Au.). Leni sings rather softly, in a dry, firm voice that only sounds soft because of her shyness. She sings like someone singing from a dungeon. What is she singing?
Silvery is she in the mirror
A stranger’s portrait in the twilight
Fading duskly in the mirror
And she shivers at its purity
My vows are to be unchaste and poor
Oft has unchastity sweetened my innocence
What we do under God’s heaven is sure
To bring us on God’s earth to penitence.…
The voice it was of the noblest of rivers, of the
free-born Rhine—but where is he who was born, like
the Rhine, to remain free all his life and to fulfill
his heart’s desire—from propitious heights
and that sacred womb, like the Rhine?
When no peace came in the war’s first year
With spring’s returning breath
The soldier saw his duty clear
And died a hero’s death
Yet I knew thee better
Than I ever knew mankind
I understood the silence of the spheres
Words of mankind I never understood.…
And I learned to love among the flowers.…
The last verse is sung fairly often and is heard in four different variations on the tape, once even in Beat rhythm.
As we see, Leni treats otherwise hallowed texts with a good deal of freedom; depending on her mood, she combines elements of both music and text:
The voice of the free-born Rhine—kyrieleis
And I learned to love among the flowers—kyrieleis
Break ye the tyrants’ yoke—kyrieleis
My vows are to be unchaste and poor—kyrieleis
As a girl I had an affair with the sky—kyrieleis
Superb, violet, he loves me with man-love—kyrieleis
Ancestral marble turned to gray—kyrieleis
Till it is expressed the way I mean it, the secret of my soul—kyrieleis
So we see that Leni, beyond being merely occupied, is productively occupied.
Without lapsing into any misplaced symbolism, Rahel gave Leni, who was invariably alarmed when confronted with the evidence of
When Leni feigned illness, which happened more and more often as time went by, she was sometimes allowed even to smoke a cigarette in Sister Rahel’s little room; Rahel explained that at Leni’s age, and for a woman, more than three to five cigarettes was not good. When she grew up she should never smoke more than seven or eight cigarettes, certainly remain below ten. Who would dare contradict the value of education when it can be stated that at forty-eight Leni still adheres to this rule, and that she has now begun, using a sheet of wrapping paper measuring five feet by five (in the present state of her finances, white paper of this size is more than she can afford), to realize a dream for which she has hitherto lacked the time: to paint a faithful picture of a cross section of
one
layer of the retina; she is actually determined to reproduce sixmillion cones and one hundred million tiny rods, and all this with the child’s paint box that was left behind by her son and for which she occasionally buys additional little cakes of cheap paint. When we consider that her daily output is at most five hundred rodlets or conelets, her annual output roughly two hundred thousand, we can see that for the next five years she will be fully occupied, and perhaps we shall understand why she has given up her job as a florist’s assistant for the sake of her rod- and cone-painting. She calls her picture “Part of the Retina of the Left Eye of the Virgin Mary alias Rahel.”
Is anyone surprised to learn that Leni likes to sing as she paints? Texts to which she randomly adds Schubert and folksong elements and what she hears on the program “Around the Home” (Hans), mixed with rhythms and tunes that draw from a Schirtenstein “not only emotion but attentiveness and respect” (Schirtenstein). Her song repertoire is obviously more extensive than her repertoire on the piano: the Au. is in possession of a tape made for him by Grete Halzen to which he can scarcely listen without the tears streaming down his cheeks (Au.). Leni sings rather softly, in a dry, firm voice that only sounds soft because of her shyness. She sings like someone singing from a dungeon. What is she singing?
Silvery is she in the mirror
A stranger’s portrait in the twilight
Fading duskly in the mirror
And she shivers at its purity
My vows are to be unchaste and poor
Oft has unchastity sweetened my innocence
What we do under God’s heaven is sure
To bring us on God’s earth to penitence.…
The voice it was of the noblest of rivers, of the
free-born Rhine—but where is he who was born, like
the Rhine, to remain free all his life and to fulfill
his heart’s desire—from propitious heights
and that sacred womb, like the Rhine?
When no peace came in the war’s first year
With spring’s returning breath
The soldier saw his duty clear
And died a hero’s death
Yet I knew thee better
Than I ever knew mankind
I understood the silence of the spheres
Words of mankind I never understood.…
And I learned to love among the flowers.…
The last verse is sung fairly often and is heard in four different variations on the tape, once even in Beat rhythm.
As we see, Leni treats otherwise hallowed texts with a good deal of freedom; depending on her mood, she combines elements of both music and text:
The voice of the free-born Rhine—kyrieleis
And I learned to love among the flowers—kyrieleis
Break ye the tyrants’ yoke—kyrieleis
My vows are to be unchaste and poor—kyrieleis
As a girl I had an affair with the sky—kyrieleis
Superb, violet, he loves me with man-love—kyrieleis
Ancestral marble turned to gray—kyrieleis
Till it is expressed the way I mean it, the secret of my soul—kyrieleis
So we see that Leni, beyond being merely occupied, is productively occupied.
Without lapsing into any misplaced symbolism, Rahel gave Leni, who was invariably alarmed when confronted with the evidence of
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