Above the Battle
in silence; and he joins with them in "the invisible community of sorrow."
"One who is suffering and knows that his sorrow is shared by millions of other beings, will bear it calmly; he will accept it willingly even, because he knows that he is enriched thereby, made stronger, more tender, more humane."[1]
And he quotes the words of old Meister Eckehart: "Suffering is the fastest steed that will bear you to perfection."
⁂
At the close of this summary review of the young writers of the war, a place must be found for those whom the war has crushed—they counted amongst the best. Ernst Stadler was an enthusiastic admirer of French art and of the French spirit. He translated Francis Jammes, and on the eve of his death, in November, he was writing to Stefan Zweig from the trenches about the poems of Verlaine, which he was translating. The unfortunate George Trakl, the poet of melancholy, was made lieutenant of a
- ↑ Hymne auf den Schmerz (January 1915).—It is to be noted that the Forum is read in the trenches, and that it has received many letters of approval from the front. (Der Phrasenrausch und seine Bekaempfer, February 1915.)
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