Dear honoured Friend,
I hardly need to tell you what delight your letter and your invitation have afforded us! — Of course we will come, for you shall be the first to whom we introduce ourselves as man and wife. To arrive at this state has cost great patience: what for years has been indispensable, was only to be compassed under sufferings of every kind. Since I saw you last in Munich, I have not left my refuge, to which since then She also fled who had to testify that it was feasible to help me, and thus disprove the axiom of so many of my friends, that "I could not be helped." She knew that help could be extended me, and helped she has: She has braved opprobrium and taken every blame upon herself. She has borne me a marvellously beautiful and sturdy son, whom I could proudly christen "Siegfried": so he is thriving with my work, and gives me a new lease of life, which finally has found a meaning. —
Thus have we shifted for ourselves, without a "world" from which we had retired completely. And so has staunchness been approved, and more affecting than the gain of new friends has been the loyalty of old ones. My sister Ottilie Brockhaus visited us as long ago as last late-summer, with her family: I heartily wished you had been here. But now St. John's day brings you to us. Our cordial welcome!
Yet listen: you may deem it right and sensible, that we should not pursue your invitation till I can lead to you the mother of my son as furthermore my wedded wife. That isn't far off now, and we hope to step into Mariafeld before the leaf falls. But prove me your whole true friendship, and with your admirable family come soon, right soon before, to us at Tribschen. If you have grandchildren, do bring them too; here you will find a troop of youth that musters merrily around its mother, who is alike its teacher and its bringer-up. Beyond that, maybe much else to give you joy.
How deeply and how earnestly should we rejoice, if you announced yourself right soon! Any day is right to us; we're always ready.
You prophesied it to me, noble one! Don't you remember, when you sped me from your hospitable roof six years ago? I was wretched. But you looked at me, and augured, you surely recollect! Well, friend! now come and convince yourself that you have the right heart for a good prophetess!
All blessings on you! May everything thrive whereon your great, grand heart is set! This my return salute!
Your
Richard Wagner.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to Wesendonck et al., trans. and indexed by William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 62