“We don’t need to see anything out of the ordinary. We already see so much.” -Robert Walser
I first came across Robert Walser’s writings in the 2011 edition of Microscripts. He had an affinity for writing short stories and essays using an early German script called Kurrent. I tried to forget about this beautiful book, Microscripts, but I never really did. And now my love for Robert Walser freely abounds with the gorgeous new book A Little Ramble: In the Spirit of Robert Walser, published New Directions. As with all of Robert Walser’s writings, you will want to take A Little Ramble in slowly.
If you’re interested in Robert Walser, leave a comment below. We will be getting in more of his books in the next week that will find their place on Lemuria’s shelves and maybe yours, too!
Robert Walser can make me feel really sentimental as my walking paths in Austria come very close to his paths in Germany and Switzerland. Surely, he walked some beautiful ways in Austria, too?
I don’t quite live in the picture-postcard Austria any longer but we do have many beautiful places in Mississippi. And maybe they are all the more special because they are not as obvious. Over the past few weeks I have been enjoying my own little ramble in downtown Jackson along the levee and down some beautiful paths along the Pearl River. Enjoy Robert Walser’s ramble in words and my ramble in photos below.
A Little Ramble:
I walked through the mountains today. The weather was damp, and the entire region was gray. But the road was soft and in places very clean. At first I had my coat on; soon, however, I pulled it off, folded it together, and laid it upon my arm. The walk on the wonderful road gave me more and ever more pleasure; first it went up and then descended again. The mountains were huge, they seemed to go around. The whole mountainous world appeared to me like an enormous theater. The road snuggled up splendidly to the mountainsides. Then I came down into a deep ravine, a river roared at my feet, a train rushed passed me with magnificent white smoke. The road went through the ravine like a smooth white stream, and as I walked on, to me it was if the narrow valley were bending and winding around itself. Gray clouds lay on the mountains as though they were their resting place. I met a young traveler with a rucksack on his back, who asked if I had seen two other young fellows. No, I said. Had I come from very far? Yes, I said, and went farther on my way. Not a long time, and I saw and heard the two young wanderers pass by with music. A village was especially beautiful with humble dwellings set thickly under the white cliffs. I encountered a few carts, otherwise nothing, and I had seen some children on the highway. We don’t need to see anything out of the ordinary. We already see so much.
-Robert Walser
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