The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries/Volume 18/In the Fog

by Hermann Hesse

IN THE FOG^[1]

In the fog to wander, how queer!
Lonely is every bush and stone,
No tree sees the other near,
Each is alone.

Once my world was full of friends,
When my life still had light;
Now that the fog descends,
Not one is in sight.

Only he is wise who knows
The steady gloom to fall
That slowly round him grows,
Severed from all.

In the fog to wander, how queer!
Solitude is life's own.
No man sees the other near,
Each is alone.

————

1. Translator: Margarete Münsterberg.