Walter Benjamin's Archive by Walter Benjamin

Author:Walter Benjamin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso Books

[Ms. 1282 verso]

“Drink water by the light of the moons

imagine, it would be champagnackwine” (old, still recited)

He has some tinfoil in his hand, on one side it is silver, on the other gold. Lies in bed and asks me which I prefer. I say: the golden side. He says: Me too, one can sleep better with that.

August 1926

From the improvised songs that came into fashion for a while: “Skeleton dance is the order of the day / In the forest, in the forest, in the forest the skeletons are clacking … They have no flesh on their chests any more … (And then in the middle of a wild pantomimic dance:) the carpet won’t get any better from this (after that it continues as before: the whole is a development of the quotation “And the skeleton fails, crush’d to atoms” from the ballad by Goethe,10 that Dora used to read to him at the time.—In addition there were also “stork songs.”)

Games from around this time in the garden with Möller: Limited Company. Kempinski11

As I am going away I bid farewell to Stefan, who is about to have a bath, with the words: have lots of fun in the bath. He responds: “have lots of joy in the town.”

While at the table he asks whether the female bear ar female bear also suffers pain when she brings her young into the world, and in response to the answer “yes,” why? Because they have not been in Paradise.

He lets it be known that he is writing a novel “The chree[?] Spheres.”

October 1926

He is writing a novel called “The Room” in instalments that appear each morning and evening. The “novel” are drawings, the text on the page messages about the newspaper, the caption on one of them “I suppose you understand that one can call this novel.”

Letter to Vienna from 9 October: “Dear Mama! Berlin, 9 October Now as I am writing to yoou, there was such a storm that the trees fell over. The birds in the cage were cheeping engagefully and then suddenly the sun threw a ray away, but thenn there was a storm against. Hopefully yoou are well. Afterwards the birds snuggled each other. Thenn one ate, so daintily. Once again best regards [stamp] [stamp] 9. 1926 (on the back drawings of bird[s], of stamps and other things.

After his bath Stefan is ranting in bed. He has a picture book with which he is larking around. He had written something down (at the front, maybe earlier): “It is very thin, but one can get fat from cleverness.” I take it away from him and want to turn off the lights. “One doesn’t read at night.” He wants to have it back: “Otherwise the darkness will read it and will remain dark for ever.” “Book to book, book of books.”

[Ms. 1283 recto]

November 1926

He shows me a sheet on which are stuck various words clipped out of newspapers, printed namely on yellow paper (the newspaper was yellow). It reads: “Stefan’s efficiency—beauty.” I say: “A messed-up beauty.

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