"The Great Sacrifice" "Our member Albrecht Froben returns from a voyage which has led him from Hamburg across the Atlantic ocean, across the old German colonies in Africa to the Japanese islands." "and which we proudly call a pioneer enterprise, undertaken in the service of the German Colonial Association." "The Hamburg section of the German Colonial Association is aware that Froben, the Hamburg senator's son, in whose blood has been the global traveler since generations.... therefore we couldn't offer him a more appropriate token of out esteem" "than the whole world." "This is where I went off the boat for the first time, Portuguese Guinea the Sudan, our old colonies Togo and Cameroon" "Belgian Congo" "Somalia" " The suitcases have arrived, shall I bring them in?" " Yes, bring them in" "Open the big black one, here's the key" "Then on board again" "To Ceylon" "In Ceylon I stayed for four weeks, because there's our main tea depot" "Then onward, passing Singapore" "The Philippines" "Japan" "You've made the first stop because of me, haven't you?" "Not exactly, but I know your passion for East Asia" "I've brought you something that will interest you" "I quite liked the way the gentlemen honoured me today but after all it's been no big deal to undertake such a trip nowadays" "You've accomplished something, and it had been no small matter" "After all you've renewed connections which had been cut off for Germany in the last years" "To conquer something back again is more difficult that to stay put on it" "A Japanese warrior of the Ashikaga Shogunate around 1500" "You see, I've been there, but you know much more about it" "But now I'll show you something that will interest you most" "A beautiful Buddha" "That's not a Buddha, it has eleven heads." "That's a Kwannon" "The eleven faced Kwannon" "Or a Kwannon, what's the difference" "No, this is something special" "A special goddess" "The Buddhist goddess of mercy" "The eleven faced" "According to the legend, a princess who knew how to defend her virtue against all attacks" "Then she'll suit you" "You allow me to let me give her to you as a present, won't you?" "Albrecht, you don't know what a great pleasure you've given me" "I'm just writing a book about East Asia" "About the old Japanese beliefs up to the cult of Shintoism" "This here isn't probably as interesting for an art historian and scholar" "A kimono?" "for whom?" "I'll find someone" "Albrecht, Albrecht..." "You're now a dignified and famous man." "you can't afford such affairs any longer" "Your position demands it" "(speaks with Hamburg dialect) oops!" "don't tread on my toes the most beautiful thing in life is the pro water ?" ", as the old Hummel used to say" "?" "and if you imagine that I shall refrain from taking a Hamburg girl out on the Alster or something like that, then you're wrong" "Say" "Isn't it Octavia?" "By the way, you'll have to pay a visit to the uncle, the senator" "How is he?" "Still busy with his humanistic studies?" "Still reading Horace and Virgil?" "How one can give one's daughter a Latin name nowadays, I can't imagine" "Octavia" "What does she do?" "She's what she has always been" "The most beautiful thing the Alster has ever seen" "Where did you get the painting?" "She gave it to me" "I say, it doesn't fit into your Buddhist shop" "It will have to fit" "I see" "Is she already married?" "No" "No one dares to, is that it?" "Yes you're right, that's it" "Look at this!" "The eleven faced Kwannon" "The princess who knows how to defend her virtue against all attacks" "Well, you'll have to visit their house on the Elbe anyway, even though she has a Latin name" "Is the family away on a voyage?" "No" "Because the blinds are down" "The family doesn't like the sunlight" "But the senator and the lady of the house have gone out" "Please give my card to the senator when he comes back" "Shall I announce you to the young lady?" "Miss Octavia is playing the piano?" "Yes, please do" "One of these hours will be your last" "Octavia" "A return after three years of wandering around?" "I hadn't really thought of returning, Octavia" "It's more like a very short visit" "Is that a difference, Albrecht?" "Yes, it is" ""Returning", that sounds as if someone expected you" "Really?" "Would you like to come up?" "Very pretty" "Much more pleasant than down there in that old hall" "Here one may enjoy life" "Beautiful" "Very beautiful" "That clock is also nicer than the one downstairs" "It doesn't remind one of one's own mortality" "The good old clock" "It goes all the way back to grandfather" "And great-grandfather probably" "I don't know, I don't even notice it any more" "Yes, what one has always seen in one's childhood, what one grew up with... that you don't see any more." "but once you've been away for a while, then you see it again." "and with new eyes" "Does world-travel make one so pensive?" "No, but one gets to see things from a distance, Octavia" "Alster boat race" "My consolation prize from last year" "Matthias couldn't do better than that" "He's more of a scholar than a sportsman" "He doesn't risk enough perhaps?" "Perhaps the dinghy isn't agile enough" "Constructed in a far too solid way, is that it?" "Old Hamburg" "I've come back to a completely different kind of life" " I haven't had breakfast." "Will you have a coffee with me?" " With pleasure." "Shall I fetch an armchair?" "No thanks." "I always sit on the floor" "You played the piano just now" "That's my great passion" "It's my life" "On Sundays, we all sit together down there, we're playing in a quartet" "The old Sanitätsrat Terboven plays the first violin" "Matthias the viola and when papa has the time, he plays the cello" " Milk?" " No, black" "I don't have the patience any more to listen to a quartet" " That had never been your style." "you need the wind and the waves, the glare and the lust of the sun..." " yes." "The wind and the waves" "The glare and the lust of the sun" "No arm's length must be between us any more" "One of these hours will be your last" "You see Albrecht, this is how we're sitting here every Sunday morning" "It's so to speak our spiritual hors d'oeuvre before the Sunday roast" "We've another hour till dinner." "read us something, papa" "What do you want to hear?" "Perhaps a Dionysian dithyramb by Nietzsche?" "A what?" "A Dionysian dithyramb" "I see" "Albrecht doesn't know that" "Let's listen to it" "The most beautiful one: "The sun is sinking"" "That's Nietzsche's death premonition, one of the deepest poems ever written" "The sun is sinking" "Not much longer will you thirst, burnt heart" "The air is filled with promises from mouths unknown a wind blows" "The great cooling arrives" "The air is strange and clean" "Doesn't the night look at me with alluring eyes?" "Stay firm, my brave heart" "Don't ask why" "Come, golden serenity" "You, death's sweetest and most secretly anticipated pleasure" "Did I walk on my road too fast?" "Only now, when the feet grow tired, your glance catches up with me" "Your happiness catches up with me seventh loneliness." "never have I felt nearer to sweet security" "Warmer the sun's gaze" "Doesn't the ice on my summits still glow?" "Silvery, light, a fish" "My boat glides away" "Very beautiful" "Yes, very beautiful" "But I think it's terrible" "What is terrible?" "The poem?" "Nothing against your recitation, papa, but..." "What is it you don't like, Albrecht?" "Don't smile in such a patronizing way, Matthias" "Apparently you think I'm too stupid to understand the poem" "Albrecht, why are you so irritable?" "Don't you want to tell us, Albrecht, why you find Nietzsche disgusting all of a sudden?" "Go on, I'm ready to listen to reason" "It's been a misunderstanding, you must excuse me" "I had no intention to teach you reason, papa" "But why do you think it terrible, Albrecht?" "That's why" "But my boy, open the other blinds too if you don't like to sit in the dark" "The blinds have nothing to do with Nietzsche" "But they have!" "Unfortunately they have." "Can someone tell me, why you're sitting here every Sunday feeling gloomy?" "Nothing against the poem" "But you lower the blinds and you're saying:" ""The sun is sinking."" "Albrecht, please!" "And outside the sun is shining" "Matthias, don't interrupt me for once you've asked me what I think is terrible" "Here you are, just look outside" "We've been sitting here for three hours, talking about philosophical matters playing nocturnes night pieces by Chopin" "Reading the thoughts of a genius written shortly before he went mad" "Is that how a Sunday morning is supposed to be?" "It hadn't just been the death premonition" "It had been the approaching madness he felt before his sun sank" "Night night night, nothing but night and death" "and outside the sun is shining" "Say, don't you think it spooky?" "Don't be angry but that's beyond me" "I'm sorry" "Bravo, Octavia" "I'm a tough case" "You won't have it easy with me, but we can arrange our life later just like we want to or like you want to, but..." "There's still another hour till dinner" "Let's get away" "You get away. no one will be angry at you" "But I have to stay here" "We have guests" "Look around, row out with the boat, stretch out on the planks" "There you have your wind and your waves and your glare of the sun" "Very well" "Ro vidare!" "(Don't stop rowing)" "Go on" "Faster" "Jag ber dig hjärtligt, var god och va' förnäm, och titta inte för noga på mig (I beg you, be kind and noble, and don't watch me too closely)" "I beg your pardon?" "If you stop rowing, my dress made out of the waves will become too transparent and I shall have to leave you also, the water caresses me better if you row faster" "Min vänlige släpare." "(My friendly puller)" "You just cling to the boat" "I'm not the least bit curious to resolve this magic" "We're very far out now" "If you aren't a mermaid with a fish's tail it'll soon become dangerous" "Can you swim out that far at all?" "I'll turn back now and you won't follow me just like you wouldn't follow a real mermaid" "Tack så mycket (Thanks a lot)" "She lives over there in the next house" " Äls?" "But that' s not a name?" " Älskling" "Actually Älskling, but everyone calls her Äls" " Is she Swedish" " I believe she's Finnish, but I'm not sure" "Anyway, she's from the north" "Her step-father gave her the house before he died, but she lives rarely here" "She like a migrating bird, comes along, settles and is off again the next day" "She spends a few months every year in her homeland, the land of a thousand lakes" "That's what you call it I guess" "And in the winter she's somewhere in the south, in the autumn in Africa or somewhere like that" "She has indeed a very..." "how shall I put it... a very unconventional way of living" "You know how people talk." "I don't know the details." "Äls... sounds charming after all" "And it suits her" "And it suits the mermaid who had appeared in your backwash" "I have no use for her" "I never had" "A pity really" "I think she's a nice girl" "Are you on friendly terms with your neighbors?" "Good heavens!" "First, she lives there all alone, and then..." "You know how we are around here..." "Even if someone lives next door, we don't know each other" "Here every house is a world in itself" "Had always been like that, and will stay that way forever" "Good morning" "Good morning" "I still owe you thanks for your pulling-service" "Don't mention it or do you demand payment?" "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather accept payment" "What kind of payment would you like?" "For instance... going out for a ride with you" "You'll see, one day I'll ride in the Derby myself" "Thank God that's still men's business" "But it would have been beautiful" "I'd place a bet on you immediately, victory and place" "Place?" "That's not very gallant" "If you'll bet, then it'll have to be only victory" "Earth's paradise lies on horseback" "You're saying this?" "I thought sailing was your passion" "But there you depend on the wind, Miss... ?" "How may I call you, by the way?" "Just call me Äls, like everybody else does" "The name is a dear memory to me" "My mother gave it to me" "Äls" "May I accompany you on your rides?" "Äls?" "Of course, only until you tire of me with that concession, I'll agree" "Well, good-bye." "Tomorrow at six, but I'll have to be back at seven, then my day begins" "Get back in there, you tramps" "Heisann (Bye then)" "Good morning" "You've been waiting for me?" "You don't say!" "Let me check first what your pulse has to say about that gallop ride" "Don't look so serious, Sanitätsrat." "I feel splendid" "The pulse says no" "Very clearly no" "But I have forbidden you to swim, to ride, to run around" "Let's sit down" "Why don't you listen to me?" "My collegue Wildbrand made an analysis of your blood" "I must confess it doesn't look good" "You are not as splendid as you say you are" "Leave that" "I believe the doctors always want to make you a bit more ill, that's how they make their money" "Don't be angry, Sanitätsrat" "I tend to keep my worries a secret from my patients because they have to feel healthy first in order to get well" "But with you I mustn't act like this, Miss Flodéen because you're unreasonable" "I know what's the matter with me, Sanitätsrat" "I think I know it even better than yourself" "Really?" "Rhat do you know then?" "How long do I still have to live, Sanitätsrat?" "I wasn't prepared for such a direct question, but no one could seriously answer that" "Anyway, I believe... that if you're reasonable..." "What if I'm unreasonable?" "Well, if you're unreasonable..." "Do you want to be unreasonable?" "I want to live." "I don't want to linger" "I don't want to think all the time whether I may do this or not" "I'd rather live a shorter time" "What does it matter if one dies at 25 or at 26?" "But I want to get something out of those 25 years!" "I've seen it for years in my mother" "Taking one medicine after another, always sparing herself" "That had been her life, leaving one sanatorium for the next" "Artificially prolonging her life and all she got out of it was a prolonged suffering" "A prolonged torture" "What is that torture you want to prolong?" "Are you in pain?" "I am not, that's the point." "And that's why I'm such a bad patient" "You see, nature has arranged this wisely, pains and all pains protect us from decay, pains can be the elixir of life" "You don't have that natural protection, Miss Flodéen and you completely forget that fate had given you already a clear sign once before" "Do you know my silver Danish mastiff Peer?" "You have so many dogs, how can I..." "But I have only one Peer." "I liked him best of all." "But when he got ill and couldn't enjoy his life any more..." "I myself killed him." "My gardener couldn't bring himself to do it." "and I didn't want to take him to the veterinary" "He should be with me" "I had been more merciful" "Excuse me, Miss Flodéen, as a doctor I cannot hold such a conversation" "It's my profession to make men well and to keep them alive as long as possible and that's why I am telling you, quit riding" "You know it, first you perspire, then cool off, then you catch another cold and you cannot afford such a cold" "Be merciful with yourself" "Älskling" "Mama's crying" "It's too much for you, Älskling" "Otherwise the child will fall asleep again" "Come to me" "Älskling" "Älskling, you're an unreasonable person" "That's what the doctor's been saying to me too just now, Gitta" "Do you imagine it's as easy for me as it is for you to be reasonable?" "I live under a different law just like your mother" "Yes, that's how it'll have to be, but I had always hoped that I'll have my child with me one day, and... and that it wouldn't have to grow up among strangers, like I had to" "Strangers?" "Gitta, don't be angry" "You've been my nurse and I've believed for a long time that you were my mother and you've always been like a mother to me" "Now you're a mother for Susanne" "You see" "Only, I often think..." "I have my beautiful garden my beautiful house" "Why can't my child live with me?" "With an ill mother?" "but we've gone through all this before." "we both decided that we won't try that again." " The child will suffer most by it" " Yes" "It wouldn't make sense anyway" "You're hardly here, you lock up the house again, move south... or north, and then it'll have to leave anyway or do you want to take it with you everywhere?" "That's not suitable for a child" "There must be order in its life" "Älskling, let's not talk about those old things anymore you know it's impossible" "Susanne doesn't lack anything, Älskling" "As long as I live, she lacks nothing and you won't get talked about." "That would be unnecessary." "I don't care about that, but it's nobody's business." "It doesn't have to be." "Then it's best that way I guess but when I'm well again, we'll build a house by the sea" "Next to the beach, so that we'll see the sea all the time... then I'll buy a pony for Susanne, and..." "A pony?" "are you mad?" "a wild animal?" "that's just like you and I'll have to be afraid again, like in old times, when the little Älskling started to gallop off, no" "You see, you'll cry and shout and we won't listen to you again" "Does it always have to be like that?" "Yes, it always has to be like that" "It's always like that..." "That you have to fear losing what you hold most dear." " A hot spiced wine?" " That would be best" " One spiced wine" " Two, you mean" "Two" "Two spiced wine" "A small adventure makes life more interesting" "Wipe your face and your hands" "Water doesn't harm a mermaid" "I had hoped to meet you yesterday when I had been rowing" "I have searched the whole Elbe" "The mermaid is no longer" "Once you know the mermaid's name the magic is gone but if her name's Äls..." "Äls isn't a name" "Nice and warm" "You see, you're cold" "I'm not, but still." "Härligt varm (nice and warm)" "Will you be staying longer in Hamburg this time?" "Why?" "Miss Froben told me that you're only passing through here" "Now, this time I'll stay longer" "I'm treated by a specialist." "You know him, Sanitätsrat Terboven" "I would have thought you a model of health" "You see how one can be wrong, but I'm healthy alright" "Only a remainder from the tropics is bothering me now and then" "What business do you have in the tropics?" "Haven't you been told yet that I'm a migrating bird?" "I've already heard that you were a migrating bird" "Bravo" "That was great, Äls" "Shooting from a standing position is not difficult, Miss Froben, but from a galloping horse, that's different" "Bravo" "I'll be back!" "Bravo" "Yeah!" "Äls!" "Not too far into the water!" "It gets deep suddenly" "Äls!" "Do you imagine my horse cannot swim?" "Don't be so reckless!" "Otherwise I'll have to follow you" "Out here there are no waves" "?" "You were splendid, Äls" "But you're reckless all the same" "Why?" "The horse will shy at the surf" "What if it had thrown you in the water?" "You could easily have gotten under its hoofs" "That's no big deal" "No big deal?" "The horse might kill you with its hoofs if it gets nervous" "Then I'll be dead, what of it if, Herr Froben" "It'll have to be one day anyway" "I say, how can you talk of death like that at your age?" "What has age got to do with it?" "One is always close to death, and it's a good thing if you smile at him from time to time and if you tell him: please, my friend you'll come when I can't go on any further" "What are you saying?" "I think you'll have some time left still... before he takes you in his cold arms" "Perhaps... and perhaps not, one never knows" "You see the rainbow?" "The bridge which swings over" "Who knows who'll have to cross it soon" "This is my favorite spot, here at the lighthouse" "Today it's beautiful, but in the autumn, when the migrating birds arrive from my homeland" "Then it's sad here" "Why?" "Then they fly against the lighthouse because they think it's the sun and in the morning they lie on the ground with their skulls smashed" "Sometimes whole flocks" "A sad picture" "Terrible" "But Äls" "You're so full of life and happiness" "That doesn't suit you, thinking about death in the wind and the sun" "Do you think so?" "What am I supposed to think about?" "You?" "Yes, I only think about him" "Only about Albrecht Froben" "You're the only one who knows it, Grållen but you don't tell anybody" "You carry me in your soft and light trot and I must have said it aloud very often" "Albrecht Froben, Albrecht Froben" "I didn't mean it" "Only when I saw you prick up your ears listening, then... then I too heard me say it:" "Albrecht Froben, Albrecht Froben" "I didn't want it" "We galloped" "I wanted to cover it all with the sound of your hoofs but again and again it got wilder for the both of us" "Ah, Grållen." "It's good that you're here so that I can tell at least one person how often I think about him" "and it's so hard to keep silent" "Especially if you're a woman" "You're thinking about the other woman" "Not about Octavia, only about the other one" "What makes you think that?" "I can tell by your face" "Do you know my face that well?" "I hope I do" "That is, at the moment I'm afraid I do" "Albrecht" "I have to tell you something" "I think it's..." "I think it's... impossible" "It's hard to find the right words" "Perhaps I can give you an example what the both of you..." "One can pack a Kwannon or a silk kimono into a suitcase but not into a life." "You've put that splendidly" "Kwannon and kimono" "You're a poet!" "But you don't know Äls at all" "Be so good as to stop using that endearing name" "That's ridiculous, everybody calls her like that" "Her name is Miss Flodéen" "After all she is a registered resident, not a figure out of a fairy tale" "But even Octavia calls her like that and you object that I call her by a name which all the world uses and think it's incredible that you compare her and Octavia in such a ridiculous manner" "Kwannon and kimono!" "One cannot compare the two of them, one wouldn't do justice to any of them" "Octavia is just heavenly, and Äls is..." "Earthly, isn't she?" "Yes, earthly, if you want" "You don't seem to be very proud of your comparison" "We know very well that we're closer to earth that to heaven." "we've been made out of earth" "You don't have to give up heaven just because you love the earth" "One doesn't have to, but one does occasionally even if you find me ridiculous again" "It means something that you faithlessly gave up your passion for sailing" "Excuse the word faithlessly" "And that you've suddenly become a passionate horseman" "You ought to start working again, you've already had a long enough holiday" "It only gives you silly ideas" "Say, Matthias... do you doubt my love for Octavia?" "I don't want that, for Octavia's sake I don't want that!" "That's why I tell you as a friend, don't place yourself in danger even if you don't die doing so..." "Think of Octavia." "Does your cousin know that you're here?" "No, nor does my cousin Octavia" "So it's just you who are worried, Herr Froben?" "Yes" "Fortunately, Octavia doesn't seem to know about that trouble yet" "You speak of such things..." "I would be ashamed to call them by name" "Don't you now that it's very dangerous to interfere with fate?" "You've said something aloud which had remained carefully unspoken between Herr Froben and myself" "One shouldn't speak of everything that might have evil consequences" "At least I thought it my duty to talk with you about it but I hadn't expected, Miss Flodéen, that we would understand each other" "Of course, you cannot share my feelings for the Froben family" "Why have you turned to me and not to your cousin Albrecht?" "I already did so." "And?" "I don't think I have achieved anything by it." "And you thought you'd achieve more with me?" "You're wrong, Herr Froben" "If it were like that... as you suppose... then you should especially refrain from approaching such feelings." "You should know that I would fight for my happiness" "So it's war" "Very well" "It all depends on who is the strongest, Miss Flodéen and you must know that Albrecht loves Octavia and she'll be his wife" "The couple will move away from here and I hope the distance will determine you to separate from Albrecht emotionally too." "As of a sudden he immersed himself into work" "He didn't even want to go on a honeymoon" "He cancelled everything" "We couldn't move to Düsseldorf fast enough" "Are you comfortable in the hotel, Octavia?" "I don't think we'll stay long in this town" "Then Albrecht isn't be looking for a flat?" "He sends me out to look for one and I've had a look at lots of flats but when I think of our house on the Elbe... then I can't make up my mind" "That doesn't sound very happy, Octavia" "I am as happy as Albrecht is." "And is Albrecht happy?" "Good gracious, he has his work and many social engagements" "He has so many obligations" "I could go to a party or a ball every night but you know me" "No one can overcome one's limitations" "That's it I guess" "But I accompany him, you'll see tonight" "I'm even looking forward to it" ""The slide", that's what the ball is called" "I've even got a mask" "They won't recognize me" "A mask?" "Octavia with a mask?" "We'll proceed like this:" "We'll arrive at different times..." "No one knows what the other will wear and we'll have to look for each other on the ball" "But I'll show my mask to you" "Albrecht won't mind if you stayed at my side" "I felt a bit uncomfortable anyway to go there all alone" "Octavia's mask?" "Yes" "Are you terribly shocked?" "On the contrary" "I think it's wonderful that you join in" "Octavia's mask" "But Octavia, you won't find him that way" "You've the whole evening before you" "Do you think I might take off that disgusting thing?" "Keep it on" "I think such a mask is a good thing" "That way you can remain incognito for a while" "One glass of champagne" "I feel that you think of me. during the night the souls are closer to each other than during the day or is it just my longing which lies to me?" "I wanted to fight for you but I mustn't take you away from Octavia" "I know how much happiness I would take away from her" "I hope that I'll have the force to keep silent from you always about how infinitely I love you but I may tell you in my diary" "Each of its pages shall speak of this love because this love alone fills my days" "Good night" "My beloved" "You cannot recognize him behind the mask and the domino but you can recognize his company, can't you" "Come" "Tell me, beautiful mask, are you looking for something special?" "Sure, whether you wear a wedding ring, or whether you're still free" "Masks will be taken off only at midnight" "What a pity" "Octavia" "You're wrong, sir" "Have drink, Octavia" "Are you that sure?" "I would recognize you among thousands" "A bit more distance, sir" "Matthias" "Play-acting isn't your strong point, Octavia but whoever you may be, let's go down the slide just once, the whole life's a slide anyway, come along" "Madam, please!" "Albrecht!" "I surely am allowed to kiss my own wife" "I don't like your wife at the moment" "I don't see whether you've blushed behind your mask, Octavia" "Once a year at carnival we all store away our decent clothes and slip into fools' costumes" "Let's wake up the holy ghosts of life which have been sleeping on the sunny shores of the Rhine for centuries" "Here innumerable feasts have been celebrated in homage to beauty and let's pay our own tribute to beauty's triumph for the most beautiful of masks we have the most beautiful thing which grows on the shores of the Rhine" "A cask of old Rüdesheim wine" "I'll raise a toast with the first glass of this delicious drink to the most beautiful mask to whom the jury has unanimously awarded the first prize" "The golden mask in the white dress" "The prince of carnival arrives in his splendor" "Descending to us, the dust-born" "Where is she?" " She sits in the car, about to drive home" "But how will it look, Matthias, I have a position here" "Embarrassing for her" "Why?" "no one has recognized her." "That's what the masks are for" "Well I guess you're right" "Say Albrecht, don't you ask too much of her?" "You must admit she had been splendid tonight" "Participating in everything, even going down the slide with you" "Yes, and she screamed like mad" "You cannot ask more of her but don't overdo it" "Octavia" "Yes?" "You're already in bed?" "Matthias has come with me but you were to stay there" "You see, I didn't want that at all" "I didn't want to spoil your fun" "But you haven't spoiled it" "Octavia" "Let's finish celebrating our carnival in here" "I've ordered champagne" "You won't mind, won't you?" "I was afraid you were angry with me" "You're so sweet to me" "Now go to Matthias" "I'll be with you soon" "Fine" "Well, will she get up again?" "I have a bad conscience" "Couldn't do you any harm" "I ought to apologize to you because I've spoiled your evening with my lack of humour" "But you haven't, Octavia" "Octavia" "I have an announcement to make" " You..." " I don't deserve this." "I don't want to play down my faults, but I had been really angry when you ran away" "But Matthias gave me a good talking-to, he told me that I had been very egoistical" "I didn't say that!" "Perhaps you didn't use the word, but I can read between the lines, anyway you were right" "Cheers" "I wonder what will be the outcome of that?" "The outcome is perfectly clear" "We'll pack and return to Hamburg with Matthias" "There's nothing which holds us here" "Octavia, I didn't advise him that" "Don't hurry things, you're always so terribly volatile" "Very well, then in the spring, but we'll leave as soon as possible" "Over-seas interests me much more than inland navigation" "Besides your father offered us the house for the spring, they will be leaving for their place in the country" "Think of it, Octavia" "The house on the Elbe" "But Octavia" "You mustn't cry" "I am so happy, Albrecht" "We'll return home" "I didn't know that she was still in Hamburg" "She told me at the time that she would be going away" "I don't remember either that she ever stayed the winter in Hamburg but Dr. Terboven says her illness was persistent, perhaps that had been the reason" "Yes, it'll be her old complaint, a remainder of a tropical illness" "How do you know?" "She told me" "Strange that she would talk about it, since she is so secretive otherwise" "This morning I've sent her our most beautiful orchids from the hothouse with greetings from the both of us" "You don't mind, do you?" "And now you'll go riding" "I hope you won't find it boring, being alone" "I'll take a few more riding lessons, then I'll accompany you if you want me to" "I'm not sure if it had been right to send her flowers" "How now, out of bed?" "You're no good patient" "Will you believe me, Sanitätsrat" "There's no better medicine for me than to be able to look into the garden once again" "Look out into the street to see a bit of life" "and to see a horse" "It didn't do you any harm, you're looking better" "Then I might allow you the walk to the window after all" "The walk to the window doesn't make me well either" "I want to be allowed to drive down to town just once" "But what business could you have in town these days?" "Now let's listen to your heart" "I have an urgent duty to perform, professor" "Very true" "Towards yourself, towards your health" "Not only that" "I haven't just myself to look after" "Yes I know, Susanne" "But she's fine, isn't she" "She is, but I want to go out" "Back onto the horse, is that it?" "That too" "A few days patience, if the heart helps us along..." "Do you think it's the heart?" "I don't know what had been helping us so suddenly?" "I do" "Wonderful the way the grey gallops" "You like him better that the brown?" "I like them both" "Only the brown is lame" "I'll have to send for the veterinary or do you know something about it?" "Let me have a look" "The back leg?" "Yes, the left" "I've made a bandage, but I think it better if..." "We love each other, my friend and it will be terrible" "terrible" "Why did you ever take me back to Hamburg, Matthias?" "I have?" "I beg your pardon?" "I have taken you back to Hamburg?" "You should have told me that Äls was still here" "But I didn't know it" "What is she to me?" "Ok, you're right" "It's just a subterfuge to accuse you." "I'm accusing myself but that's of no use at all" "I don't understand" " You've told me yourself..." " Told you, rubbish" "You don't have to remind me of the things I have told you at the time" "Of the things am I telling myself all the time?" "But what use is it if I tell myself that Octavia is infinitely more beautiful" "More noble, better" "The superiority, the grace, the nobility running in her veins" "What's the use?" " It's of no use to you?" " No it isn't" "It's of no use at all" "Not a bit" "I can tell myself a hundred times, but when I'm with Äls, then... then I'm just happier..." "It seems there will always remain an arm's distance between Octavia and myself" "That's the way it had been on the day of our engagement and that's the way it is today" "But that's terrible, Albrecht" "But I love Octavia" "No, my dear Albrecht, that's impossible!" "You cannot make it that simple!" "After all you're a man, not a savage" "You couldn't possibly hold one woman in your arms and claim to love the other" "But I haven't held her in my arms, Matthias" "You've had so many affairs" "I shouldn't have spoken to her, Matthias" "I won't be your ally against Octavia" "I don't understand what you think you're doing, Albrecht" "If you don't respect yourself, at least show some respect for Octavia" "Well" "I always believed true friendship knows no bounds but today I realize there are things one must solve alone" "Is it that difficult?" "Go on, answer me" "Octavia" "I had been so sincere at the time when I wooed for you" "and now it is to have been just a betrayal?" "It cannot be all bad because it gives you a force, a joy, a sweeping movement which I had never seen in you before." "Am I to love you less because of that?" "Octavia" "You're so... good so so..." "Yes I know" "But this matter is about yourself" "Not about myself" "Octavia" "That is so... so... superhuman" "Lugna lite, lugna lite." "Jag kommer snart tilbaka." "(Calm down, calm down." "I'll be back soon)." "Stanna kvar." "(Stay here)" "Octavia" "Octavia" "What's the matter?" "Where are you going?" "I see" "Octavia, what do you want?" "How is it going to end?" "I don't know" "I want to, I just want to" "Octavia, what do you want, what can you want out here on the street?" "Octavia, I am afraid for you" "It didn't leave me in peace at home" "I had a feeling that you might need me" "That's why I came" "Octavia this is not the right road you're going now" "Octavia, that's not like you at all, following that woman" "It is" "If you knew what I have suffered these last days" "Not every narcotic takes away the pain" "But that's not a narcotic" "Look at this!" "The way men look after her" "Nobody ever looks after me on the street" "Even though everyone tells me I'm beautiful" "You've told me many times yourself" "Albrecht has told me" "What's the secret?" "She's like a magnet" "Yes indeed" "Octavia, you should be glad that nobody looks after you on the street" "You're such a pure person" "No, that's not it" "She is one too" "She's just more powerful that I am" "It's no use pretending" "Octavia you're beside yourself, I beg of you, come home now" "No." "Don't you see, she's looking for something" "Dovenfleet (Hamburg harbor area)" "Look" "She is about to enter a building" "You see?" "Does she have a child?" "I don't know" "I didn't know" "Say, you're losing your bandages" "Kom til mig, Grållen." "(Come to me, Grållen)" "Spring inte ifrån mig." "(Don't run away from me)" "Stanna her. (Stay here)" "Vär rar mot mig, Grållen." "(Be nice to me, Grållen)" "I have to hold my horse" "I can't afford it" "I don't have your way with animals, Äls" "I love smelling the hay" "That's how I got to know you at first" "A picture of health" "When I think about how I greeted you at your window the first time" "How pale you looked behind the window panes" "You should never have gone away" "For two months I lay in that boring room and nobody had been there sending greetings to my window" "Leading me back to life" "Had it been that dangerous?" "The old Sanitätsrat Terboven thinks so" "But now all that is over" "Äls" "You mustn't break apart" "Äls" "En gang kommer et ögonblikk der du glömmer all ting omkring dig." "(Once there is a moment where you forget about everything around you)" "Min älskling." "What does that mean?" "Beloved" "Min älskling." "Älskling, that's what you are" "You too" "To die like this" "That would be the happiest death" "Äls" "What are you saying?" "And when I'm dead, do you hear..." "I want my ashes to be scattered into the sea" "I beg of you, Äls" "And when the waves will be caressing your foot" "Then you shall know that it is I" "Your Äls" "Äls, don't talk like that" "You're frightening me" "It had been so close, Albrecht, when you were away that long" "If you hadn't returned..." "I think I would never have overcome my fever" "We're like that, we're different from you down here" "When we love, then we're like that." "När vi älskar (When we love) så är vi sånn: (we are like this)" "I skillsmissan visnar vi som en bloma utan sol" "That means:" "In separation we perish" "like the flowers without sun" "Do you love me that much?" "Do you know if my husband has gone out?" "Herr Froben has just gone out for a ride with Miss Flodéen" "I see" "Why do you cry?" "I love you" "And you're crying because of that?" "Because there had been a love in my life before" "Without you" "Madam" "I've made you a cup of tea" "Have I been asleep for long?" "Perhaps an hour" "Had the Sanitätsrat..." "hand me my back seat" " Had the Sanitätsrat been here?" " Yes" "But he's left now" "He said he couldn't prescribe anything better than sleep and rest anyway" "I don't feel well" "I think I have a high fever" "Will he return this afternoon?" "He didn't know." "He has so much to do right now" "There's an epidemic in town, he says" "An epidemic?" "That sounds bad" "What is it?" "Typhus in the harbor area" "It's in the papers too" "In the harbor area?" "Whereabouts?" "Read it to me" ""As we've just learned, in the harbor area near the Dovenfleet, alarming illnesses have appeared"" "Dovenfleet?" "Yes, Dovenfleet" "Which show symptoms of typhus" "Unfortunately there have already been a few fatal cases" "At the moment they deliberate whether stricter police measures ought to be taken" "Good heavens" "I must get up" "Hand me my clothes" "Call a taxi" "But Miss Äls, you cannot get up now" "The Sanitätsrat said it was dangerous and that you need rest" "Give me my clothes" "But Madam, this will end badly" "I can't take the responsibility" "Please lie down" "I'm too weak" "My friend." "I mustn't write to you, but I have to." "An epidemic reigns in Dovenfleet bearing a terrible name." "A child is in danger, my friend, my child." "It lives at 22, Dovenfleet with Frau Steinkamp." "Take the child." "They will give it to you." "If there's no one there to look after it, take it wherever you want to, only away from the danger." "I'll wait for you by the window at 6 o'clock, till you come." "And when you ride by, I'll know whether it has been saved." "Hurry!" "Ã"ls" "I had just arrived in time." "The mother is ill, you say?" "Typhus?" "The foster-mother" "The child is healthy" "We'll keep it here for a few days for observation" "Symptoms of typhus are bound to appear very soon" "I'll bring that news gladly" "But it had been unwise to fetch the child." "you might have been infected" "You leave things like that to an ambulance" "The mother had been worried about the child" "She waits for the news, I'll bring it to her" "Do you need anything else, madam?" "No, I don't need anything" "You may go" "You may go" "But it can't be pleasant to look out into the rainy weather for an ill woman" "If it were the sun..." "The sun..." "I've seen so much of the sun in my life" "Go now" "Leave me alone" "Riding into the stable, Herr Froben, you almost would have smashed your head in at the gate" "Are you unwell, Herr Froben?" "Good gracious" "Herr Froben" "I'll call the lady of the house" "No, it's nothing" "Nothing to my wife" "I don't want her to... or someone..." "Help me" "Octavia" "I hear you, Albrecht" "You mustn't open the glass" "Typhus is very infectious" "Do you want to tell me something, Albrecht?" "No" "But I must tell you" "It weighs on my heart like a stone" "What is it?" "I am afraid for Äls" "Don't be afraid" "Fate knows better what will become of us" "I can see life above you and a light and happy future" "Only above myself?" "Not above the both of us?" "I don't know, Albrecht" "You know it quite well, don't avoid, Octavia" "Above yourself and above my love." "Yes" "Wherever you will go to be happy" "My love will always accompany you" "In this rain I have greeted Äls for the last time" "and now she'll be waiting and..." "And what?" "And die" "One doesn't die that quickly, Albrecht" "You don't know her" "At the time, when we were away in Düsseldorf" "She couldn't get well again either" "She once said to me:" "In separation we perish" "Like the flower without the sun" "That's what she said and no one had been there to send greetings up to my window and to call me back to life" "Then I'll conclude the last will" "Yes" "He isn't inside the room yet but I can feel him sneaking round the house" "Who's sneaking around the house?" "The friend" "Friend?" "Friend Heil" "I see" "Friend Heil the death" "I think madam, you look at things too gloomy" "You're seeing ghosts, don't you" "Don't say anything" "And the heir's address" "Dovenfleet 22" "Susanne" "Now it'll come to nothing with our pony with our house by the sea" "Susanne" "I beg your pardon" "Six o'clock" "Notary, please go now" "I must be alone" "I'm expecting someone" "You're expecting a visitor?" "And you're talking of dying!" "If he doesn't come I'll not survive this day" "Yes, even an embrace can bring death" "Even a child's embrace" "So be careful in the future" "This time you've been lucky" "You'll get over it with your robust health" "Oh well" "Aren't you glad?" "I am" "But..." "But?" "Why don't you tell me how Miss Flodéen is, Sanitätsrat?" "You're her doctor" "You ought to know how I long for news or do you think that you owe it to Octavia not to speak of it?" "Octavia does not need a sacrifice" "She is making a sacrifice" "Well, for her, our marriage has been a great sacrifice" "One great sacrifice" "Yes, there are natures such as this, Herr Froben and that's why Äls doesn't have to wait in vain for you and your greeting." "There stands a rider at the gate, at Äls' garden gate, offering her the lover's salute she is waiting for daily." "Who?" "Who is standing at the gate?" "Octavia" "Äls" "I will have to hurt you very much" "Äls" "I know, Albrecht" "I know it" "I know everything" "I am so sad, Albrecht even if I see your figure from my window, but you're so far away from me" "My love is so far away from you" "I don't feel it any more" "Albrecht" "But I'm not at the gate, Äls" "It is Octavia who greets you" "It isn't you?" "But it's you" "I can see you, Albrecht" "Is it really you?" "Who can say what really is?" "What do you want here, my darling?" "To say farewell, Äls" "Do we have to?" "Before Octavia's love" "Everything else must be extinguished and pass away" "Do you see this?" "Yes" "Forgive me, Äls" "That I am so cruel" "But I must tell you" "I love Octavia" "I know it" "I know" "Beloved" "Farewell and be happy" "Äls" "I cannot see you any longer" "Äls" "Don't call me any longer" "I don't want it any more" "Listen to me, Albrecht" "So far away am I" "Far away" "The sea is far away" "Are you gone?" "or is it I" "who is going away?" "We cannot know" "Step aside, Albrecht" "Stand clear of the gate" "It had been her last wish to have her ashes scattered into the sea" "She has returned" "The wind and the waves had been her elements" "Now she is wind and wave" "Subtitles serdar202  knappen"