Rosshalde Read online

  What remained to him was his art, of which he had never felt as sure as he did now. There remained the consolation of the outsider, to whom it is not given to seize the cup of life and drain it; there remained the strange, cool, and yet irresistible passion to see, to observe, and to participate with secret pride in the work of creation. That was the residue and the value of his unsuccessful life, the imperturbable loneliness and cold delight of art, and to follow that star without detours would from now on be his destiny.

  He breathed deeply the moist, bitter-scented air of the park and at every step it seemed to him that he was pushing away the past as one who has reached the shore pushes away a skiff, now useless. His probing and his insight were without resignation; full of defiance and venturesome passion, he looked forward to the new life, which, he was resolved, would no longer be a groping or dim-sighted wandering but rather a bold, steep climb. Later and more painfully perhaps than most men, he had taken leave of the sweet twilight of youth. Now he stood poor and belated in the broad daylight, and of that he meant never again to lose a precious hour.

  Books by Hermann Hesse

  PETER CAMENZIND

  BENEATH THE WHEEL

  GERTRUDE

  ROSSHALDE

  KNULP

  DEMIAN

  STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR

  KLINGSOR'S LAST SUMMER

  WANDERING

  SIDDHARTHA

  STEPPENWOLF

  NARCISSUS AND GOLDMUND

  THE JOURNEY TO THE EAST

  THE GLASS BEAD GAME

  IF THE WAR GOES ON ...

  POEMS

  AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS

  STORIES OF FIVE DECADES

  MY BELIEF

  REFLECTIONS

  CRISIS

  TALES OF STUDENT LIFE

  HOURS IN THE GARDEN

  PICTOR'S METAMORPHOSES

  SOUL OF THE AGE: SELECTED LETTERS OF HERMANN HESSE

  ROSSHALDE. From Gesammelte Schriften copyright (c) 1956 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin and Frankfurt/M. Translation copyright (c) 1970, 1998 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

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  Phone: 1-800-221-7945 extension 763

  Fax: 212-677-7456

  E-mail: [email protected] Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hesse, Hermann, 1877-1962.

  [Rosshalde. English]

  Rosshalde / Hermann Hesse ; translated by Ralph Manheim.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 0-312-42229-6

  I. Manheim, Ralph, 1907-II. Title.

  PT2617.E85R613 2003

  833'.912--dc21

  2003040565

  First published in Germany by S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin and Frankfurt/M. under the same title eISBN 9781466835153

  First eBook edition: November 2012