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PARTISAN REVIEW
uring the crowd, which would respectfully make way for her, with
a cold glance.
This is the way things were until a short while ago, but the
latest development, however, is her disappearance just at a moment
when she was expected to sing. Not only have her followers looked
for her; many others have volunteered in the search; but it has
been of no avail. Josephine has disappeared, she does not want to
sing, she does not even want to be asked to; this time she has aban·
cloned us altogether.
It is strange how falsely she can reason, clever as she is;
so falsely that you would think she did not reason at all, but was
simply driven along by her fate, which
in
this world can only be
a sad one. She has given up singing of her own accord, destroyed
of her own accord the power she had gained over our feelings.
How could she ever have gained this power, knowing our feelings
so little? She hides herself and does not sing, but the people-a
mass resting upon itself, which, despite appearances to the con·
trary, can only give, essentially, and can never receive gifts, not
even from Josephine-the people continue, without apparent dis–
appointment, calmly and majestically on their way.
For Josephine herself, the way must lead downwards. The
time will soon come when her last squeak will sound and forever
die. She is a small episode in the eternal history of our people,
and the people will survive the loss. This will by no means
he
easy; how will it ever again be possible to hold our gatherings in
complete silence? For were they not silent, really, even with
Josephine? Was her actual squeaking noticeably louder and more
vivid than our memory of it will be? Rather, did not the people
in
their wisdom esteem Josephine's singing so highly just because it
was imperishable in this way?
For this reason, perhaps, we shall not be deprived of so very
much; but Josephine, delivered from the earthly cares, which in
her opinion are prepared for the elect, will lose herself joyfully
among the unnumbered multitudes of the heroes of our nation,
and, since we keep no history, will soon be forgotten in an intenser
deliverance, like all her brothers.
(Translated from
t~e
German by Clement Greenberg)
