There is something which I had forgotten and which obliges me to write to you again, oh, my dear Judith! - The slippers without heels! ...
But no! Something else! I want a very beautiful and exceptional cover - for my chaise-longue - which I shall call “Judith”! - Listen! Try and find one of those silk fabrics called “Lampas” or - whatever? Yellow satin background - the palest possible - with a floral pattern - roses; not too large a design, it is not intended for curtains; it is used, rather, for small pieces of furniture. If there is nothing in yellow, then very light blue (same white background, which will be easier to find). I shall need six metres! -
All this for mornings well spent on “Parsifal”.
This is an Arabian name. The old troubadours no longer understood what it meant. “Parsi fal” means: “parsi” - think of the fire-loving Parsees - “pure”; “fal” means “mad” in a higher sense, in other words a man without erudition, but one of genius (“Fellow”, in English, seems to be related to this Oriental root). - You will see (sorry, learn) why this naive man bore an Arabian name! -
Adieu! my dearest, my “dolcissima anima”.
Your
R.W.
I have reclaimed this letter from the servant to whom it had been delivered since Mr Schnappauf has just brought me your latest. - Well! Well - Oh! these letters, these beautiful letters written in your own hand, that warm hand which I held during the Nibelunges!
So! Have you understood my French? Oh! I was afraid I might have said something stupid!
- Well! Well! - And so! Now - the errands. I am writing to Felix to send you the Japanese dress! - Slippers, babouches! Agreed! - The gloves - like the sample, chamois I think. - Nothing else! - And yet: My dear! My dear!
R.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 458