Month 87: Pages 140-142

This Month's Installment

The italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

 "Before, such rubbish was from evil, now it is a deadly sin; we have more important things to do," he said to the second mayor Kernstock, an older man, who held to the traditions and considered the routine as a blessing.  He himself had a stubborn capacity for work and demanded it from his co-workers and employees, but he was objective in everything and always fair.  They knew it and followed him gladly, even when he required much.  "Few words and many deeds!" was his solution.

    The meetings that with his predecessor lasted the whole morning were dealt with in two hours when it came to him, but twice as much was done in them.  Only under special circumstances were conferences with the individual departments allowed to extend more than five minutes.  That was known to everyone, and he had to follow it.

    Hans Warsow had just sat down to work on a war-time devotion when the mayor's visit was announced to him.

    "I have come in order to discuss a few necessary things with you.  It is essential that we work together in this difficult time.  Every splinter must be eliminated.  State and city, church and independent clubs, all must pull on the same rope.  Above all, it is necessary to bring every sort of act of love under one hat.  You have an association for the poor in your community to which now great tasks fall.  It must, of course, adjust to the whole thing.  We, I mean,

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give by ourselves with no backing, so far as it concerns your community, without us agreeing with you.  You do the same."

    "I agree."

    "Then the second:  the care of the wounded.  Surely we will receive many from the eastern battlefield, especially the severely wounded who cannot be brought far.  I was askt by the military authority and have placed a number of beds at its disposal, which I hope to increase considerably.  Our city military hospital is of course not enough.  A few private clinics and both lodges are already set up-"

    "I thought also of our new association building," said Hans, "it is spacious and would be suitable for use as a military hospital, the great hall for the regular soldiers, the side rooms for officers or individual care."

    "That's just what I was thinking.  Your sister would take over the administration there and look after the helpers; the medical administration should, as I just now heard, receive Doctor Moll - you know him, he is one of our best chirurgeons.  My wife, who took a Samaritan class in Königsberg, took over the lodge "For the Golden Key"... By the way, you look bad.  But that helps nothing now.  We must all get down to it, unto the last.  Healthy is the one who cannot leave his work, only he who has little to do is sick.  Goodbye, I have a meeting in city hall."

    Hans had to smile.  Now he dealt with him exactly as with the officers who were placed under him.  Without asking and hearing!  But it

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was rightly so for him, he followed gladly where he met real ability.  And in a time like this, there was only orders and obeying.  Everything else hindered and delayed.

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

According to my dictionary, "an demselben Strange ziehen" is an idiom that means "join forces."  I maintained its literal meaning, however, and translated it as "pull on the same rope."

I don't know if it's a significant detail, but I feel I should note that the "helpers" in "Your sister would take over the administration there and look after the helpers" is feminine ("die Helferinnen").

This is the end of chapter twenty-eight.

Month 86: Pages 138-140

This Month's Installment

    "I can hardly come to it, my time is up."

    There was a pale appearance around her face.

    "I would like to leave behind a little keepsake for you, Miss Hanna," he said, and it was the first time that he called her by her first name.  "Would it be a joy for you if I ordered that book, the history of my regiment, for you?"

    "You could never do a greater thing for me."

    In her words lay her soul, and it spoke to him, melancholic and jubilant at the same time.

    "Then I will order it for you immediately."

    They were very near the house; she remained standing close to the pipewort arbor.

    "I have something else that I would like to say to you, that I must say to you," and again the words came from her lips haltingly and with difficulty.  "You said earlier that in this war there would be only one for you:  victory or dying!"

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    "Quite right.  It is also the title of my book."

    "But something else would be possible."

    "You mean to fall, living, into the hands of the enemy!  No, that will never happen, that is taken care of."

    "One could be wounded."

    "One must also bear that, although it is a much heavier thought than death is."

    "It doesn't need to be a serious wound, it could be a mild one.  But no matter if serious or mild, would you fulfill a great wish for me?"

    He guessed her question:  "You mean, I should then come over there to your military hospital, you wanted to give me an appetite for that already through friendly guidance."

    "That's what I meant, but not over there, but rather here with us in the parsonage.  And you promise it, don't you?"

    "Of course, although, quite frankly, I'd prefer not to make use of your friendly offer."

    A short farewell yet from the pastor's wife, an affectionate word of blessing from the old man.  Then Fritz Warsow rode at the top of his speed over the coarse pavement of Pronitten out into the field.

    Now was it become silent in Rodenburg.  Life in the streets fell silent, the businesses saw only a tired traffic, the inns stood empty, and the houses were closed early.  That was the outer face that the city showed.  Inside, however, there was restless activity.  Dr. Stoltzman, who

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recently received his appointment to mayor, was now quite in his place.

    He gave his orders without any long-winded-ness.  All bureaucratic frills had always been hateful to him.

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

Not much to say this month.  This is the end of chapter twenty-seven and the beginning of chapter twenty-eight.

Month 85: Pages 136-138

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

    "Happy and optimistic, as I see."

    "Happy and optimistic!" he repeated.  "The belief in victory is victory.  And we all have that!"

    "And no fear at all - not even a little bit?"

    "Fear? The word isn't in the dictionary of a Prussian soldier."  But as if he had concern to appear glorious:  "Admittedly, how it will feel later out there, when the bullets are whistling around one and the grenades are bursting, one can't know that yet to-day.  One just has to wait for that.  But fear it will definitely not be!  Of that I am certain...  It is so simple:  Triumph or die!  It couldn't

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be anything else at all.  And is death really to be feared?  We all have to go some time!"

    Again he paused a moment and then continued, becoming more serious:  "A few years ago, I was occupied with a beautiful job:  I had the assignment to write the history of my regiment.  It was no easy task, at first I had imagined it would not be so difficult.  But the further I progressed the more I felt that it brought the greatest benefit to me.  I got to know the heroes who one served this regiment, who had given blood and life for its flag.  To learn from history and from the lives of great men is probably the only school that brings us fruit.  To his book I have added a foreword, I have done it out of deepest conviction, and since then it has become more central to me, no longer a byword of my book but rather of my life."

    "And this word? she askt with a quiet hesitation.

    "And old song:

No lovelier death in this world

Than he who is killed by the enemy,

On green heath in a free field,

Needs not to hear great wailing."

    They were walking very slowly.  A hot shimmering was in the air, the trees stood motionless, not a leaf stirred.

    "A beautiful saying," she said after a long pause.  "But there is also something in it that depresses.  What then can we do here inside?"

    "Work in the silence and heal wounds!"

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    "We want that.  But of course, it is only very little, shamefully little compared to what you do out there."

    "In this time, probably no one keeps track of who gives more and who receives more.  Love is love, whether it is able to do much or little.  If it only gives what it can!"  And now in a visible effort to lend a higher tone to the conversation:  "You were always practiced in Samaritan duties."

    "You have kidded me about it often enough.  But not completely rightly, as I hope.  Our schoolhouse over there has already been made into a military hospital, also the upper floor of the parsonage has been set up for taking in the wounded, you must see it yourself later."

Month 84: Pages 134-136

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized part is what I'm unsure about.

Bad enough that one could not go out at least as a chaplain to encourage the soldiers,

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and to comfort and take care of the wounded.  I was at the town hall yester-day-"

    "You wanted to come too?" askt Fritz, full of amazement.

    "Certainly I wanted to.  But they absolutely refused it.  I would be indispensable here, I had to be content with that."

    "You will do good here too.  I'm completely sure of it."

    "I will not be idle.  That is the only comfort that remains for me."

    This day a completely new agreement between the two brothers was sealed.  Quite wonderful, said Hans to himself, what everything enables to-day.  They give new meaning not only to the matters but also to the people and our whole relationship to them.

    In the early morning of the next day, Fritz moved out with his soldiers.  For Hans, however, the hours that Fritz stayed in his house were become hours of incomparable benefit.  I had never previously thought I would ever go to school with him, he said to himself, and now he is become a good teacher for me!

    And it became again happy and free in him.

    Meanwhile, Fritz went out into the dawning morning that was blossoming in the dull blue sky and filled the quiet world with its triumphant light.

    The next stop he had to take a short meal was Pronitten; from there on out, there was then a long march straight through the country to the staging grounds of the troops.  He still would have liked to ride close to Bärwalde for a moment, but he had no time for this.

    Tired and sleepy lay the large parish garden in the heat of the morning.  A few white moths

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glided slowly over the flowerbeds there, the buzzing of the bees that drowsily flew from blossom to blossom was the only sound in the stifling loneliness.

    He didn't need to look for long.  Through the high shrubs of the beans over there, where the vegetable garden was positioned, he saw a woman's dress shimmering; now he was at her side, so quickly that she had not noticed his coming at all and became aware of him only through the jingle of his spurs as he stood close by her.  A slight shock went through her body, but a bright joy shone out of her face towards him.

    "How nice that you have come once again!" she said in her winning manner and shook his hand.

    "Yes," he replied, "what you still did not want to believe back then is now here.  A few minutes more, then I move out from here with my troops to the assembly point.  And then we face the enemy."

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I translated "Sammlungsort" as "staging grounds," but literally, it's something like "collection place."

I don't know if "the high shrubs of the beans" really makes any sense, but it's the best I could come up with.

This is the end of chapter twenty-six and the beginning of chapter twenty-seven.

Month 83: Pages 132-134

This Month's Installation

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

     As she sat down to breakfast with him, Hans came, who had had work to do in the church and then had made a hospital visit.  His joy was no less affectionate when he saw Fritz in the gray cavalry uniform before him.

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     "I had already given up on being able to shake your hand again, but now here we are.  How happy I am about it!"

     With a splendid appetite, Fritz ate the beautiful Bärwalder sausage that the Hutemach had sent just to-day.

     "What do you think of the situation, then?" Hans askt.

     "Good.  The Russians will make us work here.  But we will force them.  It is, however, a pleasant duty now, with the sword in hand, to be able to defend these East Prussians, who have come to mean so much."

     "We have many enemies."

     "Certainly.  But they fight because they must.  With us, the simplest train conductor knows what it's about.  That's the difference."

     Hans glanced over at Fritz.  He had always liked him, yet sometimes he had probably not assessed him highly enough.  There he sat across from him and was of such great confidence and of such cheerful courage and ate his sausage and his ham without any scruple and thought, like his best days in Bärwalde.  And yet he was about to go into battle and give his life into death.

     Finally, Fritz was finished with his breakfast.  He gave a few instructions to an under-officer who waited outside and then stept back into the room.  Else was gone into the kitchen to make arrangements for the billeted squad's meal.  The two brothers were alone.

     "Things haven't been going well for you, Hans?" Fritz askt, and the old, heartfelt concern that he had always had for his older brother spoke out of his words.

     "It's not worth talking about.  It was more so

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a sort of spiritual pressure, too much was rushing at me.  But that is long past."

     "I have often thought about you now.  It was perhaps not so untrue what Edith once thought."

     "Edith?" replied Hans, and something irritated was in his question.  "What did she think?"

     "That it would be one's own thing to build his life completely on the spiritual."

     "Indeed she must know that well!  Only through the spiritual are we become what we are."

     "Quite right.  In the soul lay characteristics through which one wins or loses battles, a great general from 1870 said something like that.  Now we will see whether that which was sown in it during the long peacetime will bring the fruits that we need out there:  the act of will power and the strength for victory that flow only out of a pure conscience."

     Again, Hans lookt at his brother.  And for him it was as if he saw him now with completely different eyes, yes, as if he saw him for the first time in his life.  What he spoke then sounded so clever and thought through, it was the same thing that he said over and over to himself now in many a sleepless night, it was the new and overwhelming knowledge that came to him during these few days.  And with what delicate consideration and care he expressed it to him!  With that certain respect that he had always shown for his older brother and his actions and that even now, where he was of a different opinion, he did not deny.  He stood up and gave Fritz his hand:  "You are right, dear man.  The time of thinking and brooding is past, that of action is come.  You who are setting out are the heroes.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I couldn't find an exact translation for "Schlachtenlenker," but it's obviously a combination of "Schlachten" (battles) and "Lenker" (ruler or pilot), so I translated it as "general."

Month 82: Pages 131-132

This Month's Installment

The italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

Until yester-day, I workt in the command headquarters in Königsberg.  How everything went well and was in good form!  It was a joy."

     "And even now you are come to us!"

     He laughed: "Oh, you mean to dismiss me solemnly!  No, my good little old lady, as laudable and proper as that would be, the war leaves us no time for that.  I am, of course, here on official business.  Last night, I took a train of soldiers from Königsberg, we are billetted here until to-morrow.  You will also receive yet an-other man."

     "It should be good to have your people with me!"

     "I want to believe that.  They are splendid guys!  But when they have to wait so long for a snack, like their captain..."

     "I didn't think of that!  Pardon me, I just want to fetch Hans, then I'll make everything ready."

     But he called back to her again.  "How is it with Hans, then?" he askt.

     A shadow flew over her face.  "He has had a very difficult trip home."

     "I heard about the story.  Unbelievable!  That's how they do it!  But after all... we are living in a war now.  And a thing like that forces itself."

     "Then he arrived here quite exhausted just an hour before the mobilization and without any break had to throw himself into a breathless activity.  Everyone came to him.  One saw rightly what love and what confidence they showed in him."

---131---

     "That is nice and must have lifted him up."

     "So it did.  He preached like I have never heard him before.  Then it went from one official act to an-other, I barely saw him at meals."

     "Good for him, who now has something to do!"

     "But you know how all of that touches him internally.  It was always his weakness and his strength at the same time, good for others because he gives to them from his whole soul, consuming for him."

     "Now we all must more or less consume ourselves, we owe it to the Fatherland."

     "He said the same thing.  And everything was going very well - until England's declaration of war came."

     "Why the devil does that band of grocers worry him?"

     "That's not it at all.  It's something else.  He doesn't talk about it, but I know it.  His whole philosophy of life, the Christian foundation on which he built until now, has begun to waver.  Two worlds are wrestling in him:  the old, which he built on the foundation of his spiritual activity in long times of peace that has now collapsed in ruins, and the new, in which he should find himself."

     The maid came and said that there were soldiers downstairs in the hall who showed a billeting note.

     Now Else had plenty to do.  But she did it all quickly, she was not allowed to lose any of the precious time that she could still be together with Fritz.

Month 81: Pages 128-131

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

Even the sky was busy movement.  The clouds blew in as if they wanted to say:  We are going along, we are

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mobile!  And the sun shone brightly and clearly, as if it showed the way to battle, to victory!

     In Rodenburg, everything was activity; at the train station, in the depots, in the garages a running and hurrying, a humming and whirring.  And the night was like the day:  action and pressing forward.

     Everywhere, one saw soldiers:  individually, in groups, in trains.  Regiments wandering with resounding play through the streets, volunteer guards of the civil defense, their guns strapped over their soldiers, strode up and down, to the public buildings, the bridges, the water tanks.  Everyone had got going with each other, like the wheels of a great clockworks, and in everyone a calm and strength at the same time, as if this work belonged to the daily practice and didn't at all mean something new or strange.

     Even for Hans these days, there was no less to do than on Sunday.  The emergency weddings increased, throughout the whole afternoon, he had Communion distribution, in his study there was an incessant coming and going.  He found the right word for every one, and each felt that it imparted love and sympathy.

     A satisfaction, which all of his activity and work so far had not given him, came over him, he felt that in the great movement that now strode inexorably and violently through the world, he was no useless member.  Moreover, the certainty and matter-of-fact-ness with which the mobilization outside was carried out, the courage and confidence that shone out of every word, out of every eye, filled him with pride and admiration for his people.

     But then came moments when the holy

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need of the time gripped him deep in his heart, when only with quiet melancholy in his face could he look at the fathers of the families, who had to tear themselves away from wife and child, the young men moving into the field with such a holy desire and burning enthusiasm.  The unnaturalness of the war, which destroyed all culture and dealt a blow in the face to all Christianity and to all religion, spoke to his mourning soul in these moments.  Then there was a despondency in his soul, of which he felt ashamed, against which he fought with all stubborn strength, but which always came over him anew.

     "I am here for billeting with Pastor Warsow in St. Nikolai!"

     "Fritz!" cried Else and rushed towards the entering man.  "How fresh you look, and how your uniform suits you!  I haven't seen you in it for a long time."

     "I also feel very well in it.  Now the devil may walk around in civilian clothes and work the fields or fertilize the soil.  Now indeed one knows why one is a soldier!  And you can probably imagine how it has pleased me that not only did they put me in my dear old cuirassier regiment but have even made me orderly."  His eyes shone, holy joy enhanced his manly face.

     "That I can, my good boy!  But you have earned it."

     She had always been very proud of her younger brother.  After the early death of their parents, she had helpt to raise him.  With Hans was she similarly bound, across from him she felt like a mother.

     "If only our Fatherland had such genuine men!"

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     "It has quite different ones, I tell you!" he parried, in his modesty almost shockt about her words.  "You should see them!  There is a courage and a circumspection in them, it is astonishing!

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

While trying to piece together "Nottrauungen" (emergency weddings), I happened upon the phrase "in der Not frißt der Teufel Fliegen."  My dictionary says this is the equivalent to "beggars can't be choosers," but literally, it's something like "in need, the devil eats flies."

This is the end of chapter twenty-five and the beginning of chapter twenty-six.

Month 80: Pages 126-128

This Month's Installment

As always, what's italicized is what I'm unsure about.

   "Pastor," the young woman who had kept silent until then reported to Hans, "my husband has laid in the city hospital for three weeks with an open leg wound.  Even now it is not well yet."

     "Will you be quiet, Tine!  I don't need to walk, I come by horse," the young soldier dismissed, annoyed.

     But Tine did not pay attention to him:  "The doctor did not want to let him go.  But there was no holding him back.  His bad leg, his salary, his wife, nothing matters to him, he must go to the war!"

     "It is also rightly so.  Now there is no salary and no sickness.  Now there is only the Fatherland, which is in need - Bye, Pastor and thanks a lot!"

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     When Hans came home, again someone was waiting for him.  "A young man," said Else," who still wanted to speak to you under any circumstances."

     "A face that was known to him beamed opposite him.  "The pastor doesn't know me any more.  Fritz Mattern.  I was here once with Pastor and askt him for his kind recommendation because I wanted to join the navy."

     "I remember, but you were not taken, and you received a much better position in a business here as an electrical engineer, with which you were very satisfied."

     "Yes," answered the young man, his mouth formed a joyful smile, triumph shone in his small eyes, "but now I have indeed achieved it!  I am become a stoker on a warship.  It leaves to-morrow!  And I still wanted to tell you about it!"

     "A people of heroes!" said Hans to his sister.  "Man for man!  This one a chief engineer on a submarine!  Under the water, he goes into the deepest dark, sees not sky and earth, always in difficult stations full of responsibility, ready for death, certain of death, in which the blonde wife waits for him, prays for him.  The other has an open leg wound!  But he jumps on his horse because his Fatherland is in need.  The third is proud and overjoyed because he gives up a good position so that he may do stoker service deep underwater in the night and blazing heat of a giant ship.  And they all rush into danger and death with beaming smiles, with firm confidence of victory!  Dear Fatherland may be calm!"

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     Feverish days followed, days full of fervor and energy, full of hot pressure and anticipation.  The war went through the country.

     It had always been there, but it had been sleeping.  Sleeping under the fields, which yielded their fruits in their time, under the rising crops, which the sun swept across with a soft, warm hand, which the storm bent and lifted again.  Sleeping in the heat of the days, in the refuge of the cool nights, under the songs of the birds that announced the spring, under the falling leaves that the autumn spread over the fragrant ground like a rich gold blanket.  So soundly sleeping that they all had forgotten it, wrapt up in their tiny joys and small sorrows, busy with their worries and their plagues, without which they simply couldn't live, and Christmas after Christmas sang thanklessly their "Peace on earth," as it had to remain, forever, without any end.

     Now, however, it had awakened.  It stretched its bony members, it took its powerful scythe and lifted its snake-haired head.  It tore the iron horn from its fleshless ribs and blew with its bloodless lips until its lowest depth that rang and cried through the whole world:  "The war has arisen!  Prepare yourselves!"

     And they prepared themselves.  It was as if the whole world rumbled with the footsteps of deploying troops, with the hoofbeat of saddled horses.  Through the forests and fields went the frenzy of the important time.  In their formidable strength stood the trees, the slender trunks neatly in a row, as if ready to march.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

Although it's describing fields, not a tree, the relative clause "which yielded their fruits in their time" seems to borrow from Psalm 1:3:  "He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers."  In the original German novel text, it's "die ihre Früchte brachten zu ihrer Zeit," and in the German Psalter, it's "der seine Frucht bringt zu seiner Zeit."

The phrase "Friede auf Erden" also comes from the Bible.  Luke 2:14:  "Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe und Friede auf Erden bei den Menschen seines Wohlgefallens."  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased."

This is the end of chapter twenty-four and the beginning of chapter twenty-five

Month 79: Pages 125-126

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

     "Were there even many people with you?"

     "A few men who wanted to say goodbye before they go in the field.  They must leave behind business and work and part from wife and children.  But you should have heard with what confidence and joy they went, all of them!  One took his boys with, whom I had just confirmed; and when his wife cried, he said, 'Mudder, laß jut sein... 's is Anstandspflicht jejens Vaterland.'"

     After the meal, he lay down and immediately fell into a death-like sleep.

     He must have rested for a long time because it was already softly getting dark when Else step into his room.  He could barely pull himself together, he didn't know where he was.  All of a sudden, it occurred to him:  "Oh, yes, it is war!"  Then he was very awake.

     "I have disturbed you reluctantly, but Seydelmann was just here.  A few more people have come who move out to-morrow morning and wish Holy Communion."

     He stood up immediately and put on his cassock.

     "The one asked for you specifically, he is a son of Bärwalder Kutscher."

     "What?  Of old Schikorr himself?  I married him here only in May - and now also with!"

     Two couples stood in the sacristy, in which he distributed Holy Communion at such a late hour:  the young Schikorr, who in his civilian occupation was a locksmith and now made a martial impression as a cavalryman, and then an-other.  In the dim twilight, he couldn't recognize the uniform.  But he stood so quietly and calmly at the side of the pale blonde woman

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that he thought:  "Perhaps one who must not go directly into the fire, a military officer or something like that."

     After the ceremony, he approached him, as he was in the habit of doing.  Now he saw that he belonged to the navy.  "Chief engineer on a submarine."  He answered so quietly and firmly, as if it were a small trial run.  And the young blond woman at his side brushed away a tear, as if she was ashamed of herself.

     Hans had also said a few friendly words to young Schikorr.  When he left the sacristy, he saw that his left foot was dragging.

     "What's wrong, Schikorr?  Something with your leg?"

     "Yes, but, Pastor, it is nothing."

     "But you are limping."

     A bright smile.

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

When Hans quotes one of his parishioners, it's spelt in what is apparently the man's dialect, and I understand only a few words of it, so I just left it as it is.

I had been translating Sakristei as vestry because this is the only translation that my dictionary provides.  I'd suspected that it could also mean sacristy, and the context here seemed to favor this (why hold Communion in the vestry?), so I lookt up sacristy in the English-to-German section of my dictionary and found Sakristei.  I'm sure there are a few earlier instances I should change now.

Month 78: Pages 122-124

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

     It sounded like a cry out of deepest need, like a confession at the same time of confidence and of faith, the mountain moves and rising tides ebb.  Now confidence and victory were also in his soul, enthusiastically and in high spirits as never before, he went to the pulpit, he read the text:

     "Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.  There is a river

---122---

whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.  God will help her when morning dawns.  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."

     One had never before heard him speak as on this day.  Usually, his sermon was full of intellect and deep thoughts, this time it was like a thriving fire of his words that, restrained only with effort, burned out of everyone and inflamed all who heard them.  And there was not one in the large church who went away from this service not lifted and purified.

     "That was the man whom we needed, especially for such a difficult time!  I saw it straight away back then and have made the right choice," said Mayor Stoltzmann to his wife at the exit.

     Edith went silently between the two.  The conversation again reminded her that she had not had Hans Warson in her home for a long time.

     After the service, the Lord's Supper was held in the church.  Again a large congregation gathered at the high altar:  men whom Hans knew only in their peacetime occupations, salesmen, civil servants, craftsmen, workers.  Now all in uniform, prepared for marching off:  officers, sergeants, corporals, privates.  And beside them their wives.  Then mothers and fathers to the side of their very young son who was going to war.  The women wept softly, even the eyes of the men shimmered with a trace of tears.  And yet everyone's composure was calm and strong.  How filled and loaded by the force of the moment.

---123---

     And he, who so many times had carried bitter lamenting in his despondent heart that humanity had broken away from God's gentle purpose, he distributed bread and wine and in this hour experienced what to him only a few days ago would have appeared impossible.

     But when he came home after uninterrupted work, he felt that he was at the end of his strength.  The hasty trip with its unpleasant incident, the sleepless night with its rushing thoughts, but more than that:  this morning with its great elevation and spiritual excitement had surely exhausted his delicate and soft-voiced organism.  He was annoyed at himself, he did not want to let it arise.  He spoke thoroughly and warmly with the people who waited for him in his study, he went into the church several times in order to hold war marriages and to baptize children whose fathers were going into the field.  And there he never did anything superficially but did everything with his whole soul, so that this all touched his heart.

     When, around two o'clock in the afternoon, he went out of the church for the last time and into his apartment, he suddenly felt such an intense, black flickering before his eyes that he had to hold on to the banisters in order not to collapse.  But he fought like a champion, took off his cassock, proceeded to the dining room, where Else already waited for him, showed a cheerful face, and forced himself to eat.

     "You have had a desperately hard day," she said.

     "But a great, a wonderful day!  I have experienced what I longed for with the entire fervor of my soul, on whose fulfillment I already despaired; now I have seen it with my own eyes.  This war has worked wonders in one day!"

---124---

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

The reading ("Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way...") is from Psalm 46, although some verses are dropt out.  The quoted text contains verses 3-5, 6b, and 8 in the German Psalter, where the versification is slightly different.  This corresponds to verses 2-4, 5b, and 7 in English translations.  Rather than do my own translation, I simply used the ESV translation.  It's a fitting reading to come after "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," since this is the Psalm that Luther used as a basis for that hymn.

This is the end of chapter twenty-three and the beginning of chapter twenty-four.