He laughed so hard
that he turned a somersault in the air
and played trills with his heels.
At the same time he shouted at me:
“Hey, my young fellow, does your tongue smart,
man, do your lungs really pinch, man?

You think of your readers, those carrion feeders,
and all your typesetters,
those wretched abettors, and saber-whetters.
You dragon, you make me laugh
till I shake me and burst the stitches of my breeches.
O heart of a gull, with printer’s ink dull,
and soul sorrow-full.
A candle I’ll leave you, if that’ll relieve you.
Belittled, betattled, spectacled and shackled,
and pitifully snagged and by the tailwagged,
with shilly and shally
no more shall you dally.

For the devil, I pray, who will bear you away
and slice you and splice you
till that shall suffice you for your writings
and rotten plagiarisings ill-gotten.”

—excerpt Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
p. 207

I had to share these delicious words with you.  Hermann Hesse writes of a conversation between Harry Haller, the Steppenwolf, and Mozart which takes place in a dream-vision.  Harry is a senior-citizen, quite self aware of his scholarly accomplishment, a critic of culture and a writer.  All of this not withstanding Harry recognizes that he has not really learned to live.   Harry’s point of pride taken in his sardonic, critical elevation above the hurly-burly of life, — is shown by these words spoken by Mozart to be an absurdity.  Mozart lampoons “young-fellow Harry” and his many scholarly writings.

Harry’s numerous scholarly words have merely added their quotient to the weight of the world’s burden.

For the devil, I pray, who will bear you away……

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These photos were taken earlier in the week.  The iris are in full  bloom.  Iris always remind me of the iris garden’s on grounds of the Shrine of the Meiji Emperor in Tokyo.