Tags
Goethe, letter, love letter, new year, parents, resolution, writing
I went to the shopping mall yesterday and scoured all the bookstores (okay, just 2) for pretty letter sets. There’s a sorry number of not-so-pretty ones available. I have never been big on correspondence, much less through the traditional snail mail.
But, I’ve recently been given the chance to visit my parents in California (they’ve been away from the Philippines since 2003, and have gone back and forth very infrequently) and I thought something from the mail could definitely cheer my father up considerably.
So, tonight, I’ll draft my letter in my beautiful (if I may say so myself) penmanship and hope and pray that it reaches my father happy and well.
In the meantime, here’s a lovely love letter from Goethe that’s believed to be written on 17 June 1784. I especially liked the first sentence and first paragraph. Enjoy.
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My letters will have shown you how lovely I am. I don’t dine at Court, I see few people, and take my walks alone, and at every beautiful spot I wish you were there.
I can’t help loving you more than is good for me; I shall feel all the happier when I see you again. I am always conscious of my nearness to you, your presence never leaves me. In you I have a measure for every woman, for everyone; in your love a measure for all that is to be.
Not in the sense that the rest of the world seems obscure to me, on the contrary, your love makes it clear; I see quite clearly what men are like and what they plan, wish, do and enjoy; I don’t grudge them what they have, and comparing is a secret joy to me, possessing as I do such an imperishable treasure.
You in your household must feel as I often do in my affairs; we often don’t notice objects simply because we don’t choose to look at them, but things acquire an interest as soon as we see clearly the way they are related to each other. For we always like to join in, and the good man takes pleasure in arranging, putting in order and furthering the right and its peaceful rule.
Adieu, you whom I love a thousand times.”
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(copied from http://loveletterscentral.com/88/a-romantic-love-letter-written-by-johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/
