"Ginkgo biloba" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[MissHoneychurch]

The leaf of this Eastern tree
Which has been entrusted to my garden
Offers a feast of secret significance,
For the edification of the initiate.

Is it one living thing
That has become divided within itself?
Are these two who have chosen each other,
So that we know them as one?

I think I have found the right answer
To these questions;
Do my songs not make you feel
That I am both one and twain?

[Heidi]

1. Ooooooooo, check out that BEAUTIFUL handwriting!

Thank you for sharing this, gf! I should scan in a love letter I have; it was written in the late 1800s in the "old" kind of German calligraphy. (Sorry, I can't remember the German name for the "old" style of German writing.) :hug:

[MissHoneychurch]

2. Süterlinschrift

:)

It is the handwriting from Goethe in the pic. Unfortunately is that piece not in our museum, but in Düsseldorf.

[Heidi]

3. Okay, I scanned one of the letters.

[MissHoneychurch]

4. Oh!!!

That reminds me of the letters my great grandma wrote us.

Do you know what it says?

[Heidi]

5. I've no idea what it says, and CMW wasn't taught to read

that kind of writing. :shrug:

I have dozens of these letters. They apparently were written by CMW's Swiss great-grandparents to one another when they were "dating." I use them for collage. :blush:

[MissHoneychurch]

6. I will try to read and translate it

Would that be OK for you?

It is a fantastic letter to use for collage. The color is just perfect for it.

[Heidi]

7. I would love that!

:hug: :loveya:

[MissHoneychurch]

8. Okay

I will do it tonight or over the weekend.

I can already say it was written in Zürich, den 18. Juli 1901 :D

[Heidi]

10. Hahahahaha!

I got that part, too. :rofl: And there my understanding of this letter comes to a dead halt. :rofl:

[MissHoneychurch]

12. LOL

Ok ...

Liebe unvergeßliche Elise! (Dear, unforgettable Elise)

[Heidi]

13. Isn't that just beautiful?????????

"Dear, unforgettable Else . . ."

:sigh:

[MissHoneychurch]

14. It is very romantic

I can't read the rest yet. It will be a bit more complicated.

Her name was Elise, not Else :D

[VenusRising]

15. Drops dead from the utter romance.

I'm such a sucker for lovey dovey stuff.
:loveya:

[Heidi]

16. Me, too.

One of my prized possessions is a leather-bound journal that Call Me Wesley wrote in every day for six months and gave to me for my 36th birthday. It's the most sweet and romantic thing _evah_. :loveya:

[MissHoneychurch]

17. How sweet is that????

:wow:

[Heidi]

18. If he'll give me permission, I'll scan and post a page here

sometime. His writing is just beautiful, and this journal is filled with gorgeous ephemera: a feather, a palmetto leaf, wine label, stuff like that. :loveya:

[MissHoneychurch]

19. Did he write in German or English?

German wouldn't be too dangerous here :rofl:

[Heidi]

20. Both,

but mostly English. :D

[VenusRising]

21. Swoons.

I love that kind of thing. You are so lucky!

Mine drew a picture of a tree where the branches spelled out "I Love You". It's framed and hanging on my wall. It still makes me cry.

[Heidi]

22. That's soooooooo cool, VR!

I hope you'll keep that drawing forever. :hug:

CMW was the one who got me started painting. When we met, I was a journalist on sabbatical in Europe, and he always had watercolors and stuff around. One evening, he pushed the watercolors across his desk and said, "Do paint." So I did. And I do. :D

[VenusRising]

23. I got my husband painting.

He was a pencil, ink, and colored pencil man. I gave him a canvas and some paints and he is awesome. He's so artistic it makes me so jealous. I love to encourage him though. I wrote him a book about how we met and got married, and made him cry when I gave it to him. We're so sappy. :loveya:

That drawing is one of the most precious things that I have. There is passion in all art and it means so much more when the passion in your loved one is for and inspired by you.

I'm a hopeless romantic.

[Lethe]

9. nice penmanship!

i wish i could write like that. How does one learn to write in such a way?

[MissHoneychurch]

11. Move back in time

to the 18th century :D

[xchrom]

24. lovely -- the whole thing -- just lovely.

[DixieBlue]

25. I love gingkos and this is one of my fave pieces

by Goethe.

Love the handwritten poem. Beautiful.

I've actually been to Weimar and seen Goethe's garden house. Simply lovely.

[MissHoneychurch]

26. I work in Frankfurt

in his birth house