Discovering caprice

                    

                    I didn't agree to this rela-

                    tionship, to be bathed un-

                    der duress and have my toe-

                    nails trifled with. Our deal 

                    was, lots of birds to chase, 

                    fresh water, and a mattress 

                    to call my own, as in, yours. 

    And she was, I think, the more 

    convinced of her destiny by the

    very strangeness of the form it

    assumed. She knew that love is

    capricious, an irresponsible,

    sovereign power, liking nothing

    better than to play tricks on

    the reason and assert its domin-

    ion over judgment and understand-

    ing. She had imagined quite other-

    wise the man of her choice; she

    had thought of him as created more

    from her own likeness, more light-

    hearted and high-spirited ..

Thomas Mann

Lotte in Weimar

  The Beloved Returns

1939

H.T. Lowe-Porter

  translation

University of California Press, 1990©