My dear, dear & only girl, it is now more than twenty-four hours since I last saw you, I who once craved for even a minute of your time. What is to become of me? I am filled through and through with melancholy and tears, and can find pleasure in nothing, in nothing, - nothing! I have grown too fond of you, - I now realize that all too well, you most excellent, dear child! How can I accustom myself so soon to being parted from you, how could it be possible for me to live without you! You have become a part of me, and I feel mutilated in every limb when you are not here beside me! - Ah, if you could share but half my sense of melancholy, you would be overcome by love and thoughts of me.
I broke down and wept all over again, - tell me, were you angry with me for being so slow in forwarding the letter to you? - Oh, I would have come in person soon enough, - but I would then have remained with you, - I know that for certain, - and I would have abandoned my journey & everything else! - Ah, - who can describe my lonely state! - Yes, my Minna, - I love you, - and in doing so I am a little conceited, - you see - I imagine that it was I who breathed into you the life and soul you had earlier lacked, - or which I had at least not previously noticed in you; - also, I often believed you did not love me, - but now I know otherwise, - yes, when I kissed you that last time, - your love entered into me twice over, nay, a thousand times over! - Oh, my life, - never forget me, - never betray me, - remain true to me, - remain my own Minna, and if you ever felt the emotion of love, bestow it all on me, - and never force me to share you with another man, - for you yourself have my whole heart! - Do you hear? Do you hear? Never betray me! - You cannot imagine how painful it is to look back on you all in Magdeburg; - it cuts me to the quick to think of you living in such wretched, humiliating conditions; - I shall do all I can to help Fräulein Haas, - for you refused my offer to help you yourself. - You must both get away from there, - that goes without saying! - I have come to hate Leipzig & Magdeburg & everything else, - I love only you, - oh, come here soon, so that I may see you & convince myself - that you still love me! - Write to me by return of post, and tell me whether you love me, whether you are thinking of me! Write! Write! and console me, my angel! I shall write again soon! Soon! Adieu! Adieu! Think of me, think of
Your
Richard.
c/o Rosalie Wagner, Reichel’s garden, at the back of the building.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 10