IMMORTAL BELOVED

“My angel, my all, my other self … why this profound sorrow, where necessity speaks …

… look at Nature in all her beauty and set your heart at rest about what must be. Love demands everything and is quite right, so it is for me with you, for you with me.

… No doubt we shall meet soon; and today also time fails me to tell you of the thoughts which during these last few days have been revolving about my life … my heart overflows with a longing to tell you so many things … there are moments when I find that speech is quite inadequate …

… Be forever my faithful, my only sweetheart, my all, as I am yours. The gods must send us everything else, whatever must and shall be our fate.

… Can our love persist otherwise than through sacrifices, than by not demanding everything? Canst thou change it, that thou are not entirely mine, I not entirely thine?

… look into beautiful Nature and compose your mind to the inevitable.

… Without you … pursued by the kindness of people here and there, a kindness that I think .. that I wish to deserve, just as little as I deserve it …

… However much you love me … my love for you is even greater … never conceal yourself from me … so near … so far … is not our love truly founded in Heaven … and, what is more, as strongly cemented in the firmament of heaven?

… Even when I am in bed my thoughts rush to you, my immortal beloved, now and then joyfully, then again sadly, waiting to know whether Fate will hear our prayer …

… To face life I can only wholly live with you or not at all … why must one be separated from she who is so dear. Yet my life in W (Wien/Vienna) at present is a miserable life … Your love has made me both the happiest and unhappiest of mortals …

… My bosom is full, to tell you much — there are moments when I find that speech is nothing at all. Remain my true and only treasure, my all, as I to you. The rest the gods must send, what must be for us and shall.

… You suffer, you, my dearest … where I am, you are with me, and I with you …

… Is it not a real building of heaven, our Love … but as firm, too, as the citadel of heaven.

… My ideas yearn towards you, my Immortal Beloved, here and there joyfully, then again sadly, awaiting from Fate, whether it will listen to us.

… Yes, I have determined to wander about for so long far away, until I can fly into your arms and call myself quite at home with you, can send my soul enveloped by yours into the realm of Spirit …

… Yes, I regret, it must be … you know my faithfulness to you; never another one can own my heart, never …

… Angel, I just hear that the post goes out every day and must therefore close at once so that you get the letter.

Oh do continue to love me … never misjudge your lover’s most faithful heart … I must live for you and you for me …

Be calm … love me … today … yesterday… what tearful longing for you … for you … You … my Life … my All.

Farewell.

Ever thine.

Ever mine.

Ever ours.

L

(Ludwig van Beethoven)

In his early forties, the prolific composer and tortured genius Ludwig Van Beethoven fell deeply in love with a mysterious woman he referred to as his “immortal beloved”. A breathtaking love letter believed to have been written over a two-day period in July 1812 was found among his personal effects after his demise. Its unnamed recipient, his “Immortal Beloved”, remains a mystery after two centuries and may never be known although widespread speculation has abounded since it was found. The letter was possibly never sent unless he had retained a copy – a tragic but exquisite testament to the longing of the heart and its capacity to love at the deepest and most profoundest levels; a letter he kept with him until his death.

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