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723.Out here in the open the silence was still greater than in the forest; no rustling bushes, no startled night beasts, no crackling twigs.
Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund, translated by Ursele Molinaro, Bantam, 1971, p. 81-82.
PLACE: a forest near a monastery in Germany
TIME: the Middle Ages
CIRCUMSTANCE: a lovers' tryst.
He heard a woodpecker tapping and tried to find it. For a long time he tried in vain to catch sight of the bird. At last he succeeded and watched it for a while; the bird glued to the trunk of the tree, all alone, tap-tap-tapping, turning its busy head this way and that ... Goldmund longed to become a woodpecker for a day perhaps, or a month; he would have lived in the treetops, would have run up the smooth trunks and pecked at the bark with his strong beak, keeping balance with his tail feathers. He would have spoken woodpecker language and dug good things out of the bark. The woodpecker's hammering sounded sweet and strong among the echoing trees.
Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund, translated by Ursele Molinaro, Bantam, 1971, p. 87-88.
PLACE: a forest in Germany
TIME: the Middle Ages
CIRCUMSTANCE:
Before falling asleep in his bed of moss, he listened to the many incomprehensible, enigmatic night sounds of the forest, with curiosity and fear. They were his companions now.
Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund, translated by Ursele Molinaro, Bantam, 1971, p. 89.
PLACE: a forest in Germany
TIME: the Middle Ages
CIRCUMSTANCE:
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