The Brown Book

Diary Entry of September 7, 1872

Overview

Wagner's epitaph for Karl Tausig depicts readiness for death as a fruit usually slow to ripen. Tausig's early attainment of it becomes both his daring and the cause of mourning.

Content

Saturday, September 7:

Grabschrift für Karl Tausig
Reif sein zum Sterben,
des Lebens zögernd spriessende Frucht,
früh reif sie erwerben
in Lenzes jäh erblühender Flucht, —
war es Dein Loos, war es Dein Wagen, —
Wir müssen Dein Loos wie Dein Wagen beklagen.

Epitaph for Karl Tausig
To be mature for death,
life’s slowly thriving fruit,
to win it early ripe
in sudden blossoming flight of spring —
that was your fate, and that your daring, —
your fate we must lament, so too your daring.