Yet why only for a visit? Why should she not remain in my house always to beautify my advancing years with the roseate dawn of her youth?
Yes. Eos, Aurora: it is a fitting symbol for her. So young, so full of the dewy freshness of the morning, with her ruddy curling locks floating saucily around her.
Perhaps, now that she has grown more sensible, she will joyfully accept the offer I made when she was a child: to go with me as my adopted daughter.--Daughter? That is not the right word; no longer the right word: she has blossomed into womanhood: I should not think of lifting her on my knee, as I did years ago. She has become too mature.
And I am still too young to regard her only as a daughter.--Rather as a brother, her loving brother who rejoices in her beauty. No, it will not do.
A short time ago her round arm brushed me (the German women go with bare arms); a fiery thrill darted through my veins. I can scarcely doubt it, I---
My feelings for her do not concern other people. I might at any rate first take her with me--and then adopt her? No matter what the legal form may be, I am determined to keep her near me always.
I can no longer do without her charming presence; everything would grow dark and cold. Already I shiver at the thought of again living alone with the icy-hearted Herculanus.
She has become my muse! A barbarian one, do you scoff? Aha, are these lines so barbaric?
"Incarnate joy! Caressing bliss! O thou embodiment of sportive grace!
How the Barbarian maid the fair ones of Latium hath vanquished!