The cool and collected Narziss finally tells his lifelong friend Goldmund how much he means to him. Goldmund wanders the world for years, the wilder of the two, and perhaps in some senses the less wise, eventually returning to his childhood home, and friend-mentor Narziss, for succour and care.Â
Let me say it now, and tell you how dearly I love you, how much your life has always meant to me, how rich you have made me.Â
Thinking of my friends far away and with whom I have only occasional contact, this sense of my life being enriched by their existence is strong.Â
It also reminds me of a comment in the 12th century Song of the Cid.Â
Source: Hermann Hesse, Narziss and Goldmund, trans. by Geoffrey Dunlop (Harmondsworth: Penguin Modern Classics, 1982), p. 295
Photo credit: Harli Marten at unsplash
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