Thursday, September 11:
R. had a good night; he reads Louis Lambert and works. At lunch he says, “It would do the French a lot of good to have a good translation of Schopenhauer,” and he talks of the Swedenborgism of Balzac, whom he calls “a serious fellow.”
He intends to write two more articles for the Bayr. Blätter, one about the nature of symphonic music and “a long work” about the affinities between religion and art. He makes some more alterations in Parsifal and tells me, “If you only knew what torments I went through!” It is the “Nun such’ ich ihn von Welt zu Welt” passage - he was not happy with a sequence in it.
Departure of Herr Jäger, who is going to Vienna. I read friend W.’s manuscript and feel sorrow over Siegfried - he has been untruthful! At the conclusion of an evening during which we are visited by two French people (M. and Mme Lascoux), R. complains of a pain in his heart, and so going off to sleep is a very oppressive affair, appearing to my imagination as if it were a direct path to death. Ah, worry! R. was amused by the imperturbable seriousness of the French gentleman, who did, however, respond very well when he told him his thoughts regarding Parsifal. R. speaks very fluently.
Oh, my star, remain merciful to me, do not force me to act alone! Go out, vanish, but do not brighten an existence without light - do not bind me here below when my sun no longer shines!