Dear Cosima,
Would Hans be kind enough to write to me the moment he returns from Petersburg? I need the advice and the loyal assistance of all who love me, in order that I might reach and carry out certain decisions which, if at all possible, will cure my sick existence to the extent that I may yet be able to achieve something. Death eludes me, but life, too, is impossible, at least the sort of life I have been leading until now. - It is not peace which I have here, but only a refuge. I cannot entertain the thought of work: this says it all.
I beg you: tell Hans to write; for the time being we must stick together.
With a sad heart, sick and wretched
R.W.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 297