Chapter 29 Part Two Falls (4)

Leihard was very upset when he heard this.Except for his own subjects, the rest of his knowledge is limited to some acquired in school.The French, in his opinion, are clever in practical matters, dexterous, good-natured, talkative, but frivolous, angry, haughty, not at all serious, without strong feelings, not to speak of sincerity,—then It is a nation without music, without philosophy, without poetry (except Boileau, Berenger, and Gaubet), a nation of vanity, frivolity, exaggeration, and obscenity.He felt that the words against the immorality of the Latin people were simply insufficient; for want of a better term, he kept referring to the word frivolous, which in his mouth, as in most Germans, had a kind of Very sorry.At the end, he repeated the old tune of praising the German nation—that the Germans are a moral nation (according to Herder, this is what makes them very different from other nations),—a loyal nation (including sincerity, loyalty, righteousness, integrity, etc.), - the outstanding nation (as Fichte said), - and the German strength, which is the symbol of all justice and all truth, - the German thought, ——the generosity of the Germans,—the language of the Germans, the only distinctive language in the world, which is as pure as the race,——German women, German wine, German songs..."Germany, Germany, all over the world Germany is above all else!"

Christophe objected.Mrs. Lehart laughed along.The three of them yelled at the top of their voices together, but it was still speculative, because they knew that each other was a real German. Christophe often went to the house of the new friends to chat, eat, and walk with them.Lili Lehart doted on him, cooked him good meals, and was glad to take the opportunity to gratify her own appetite.She is incredibly considerate both emotionally and culinarily.When celebrating Christopher's birthday, she specially made a cake, surrounded by twenty candles, and poured sugar in the center to form a portrait in Greek costume, holding a bouquet of flowers in her hands, representing Evgenia.Although Christophe spoke against the Germans, he was very German in his heart, and was greatly moved by her less refined expression of true feelings.

The sincere Leharts will come up with more subtle ways to prove their friendship.Lehardt, who knew only a few notes, listened to his wife's advice and bought twenty volumes of Christophe's songbooks--(this was the first batch sold by the publisher),--distributed to He has acquaintances in the educational circles from all over the country; he also taught people to send some to bookstores in Leipzig and Berlin, which he had contacted for the compilation of textbooks.This kind of moving and clumsy marketing work done without telling Christophe has no effect for the time being.The scattered songbooks don't seem to be easy to find their way around: no one mentions it.The Leharts were very sorry to see the indifference of society, and felt fortunate that they did not tell Christophe what they had done; otherwise, instead of comforting him, it would only increase his pain.But in fact nothing is wasted, there are many such examples in life; no effort will be in vain.There may be no news for many years; suddenly one day you will find that your thoughts have been affected.Christophe's songbook took small steps like this, and stepped into the hearts of the few who stayed alone in the interior, or because they were timid or because they couldn't get up, they didn't tell him their stories. impressions.

Only one person wrote to him.Three months after Lehardt sent the collection, Christophe received a very polite, warm letter, written in an old-fashioned style, from the place It is a small town in Thuringia, signed by Dr. Peter Suz, a university professor and music tutor. That made Christophe very happy, but the Leharts were happier than he when he opened the letters that had been in his pockets and forgotten for several days at the Leharts'.They read the letter together.The Leharts looked at each other, but Christophe did not pay attention.He was full of joy at the time, but Leha Tufa saw that he had lost his confidence halfway, and suddenly his face darkened, and he stopped.

"Well, why don't you read on?" he asked Christophe. Christophe threw the letter on the table and said angrily: "Hey! It's unreasonable!" "What's the matter?" "Go and see!" With his back to the table, he stood off annoyed. Leihardt and his wife read it together, and it seemed that they were all words of admiration. "What's going on? I can't see it..." "Can't you see? Can't you see? . . . " cried Christophe, taking up the letter and holding it before his eyes. "Can't you read? Don't you see that he too is a Brahmsian?" ?”

It was only then that Lehard noticed that there was a sentence in the letter from the music instructor comparing Christophe's songs to those of Brahms.Christophe sighed: "Hey! Friend! I've found a friend at last...and lost it!" He was pissed off when he was compared to Brahms.With his temper, he would immediately write a rash reply; at most, after considering it, he thought that ignoring it was the most sophisticated and polite way.Fortunately, while laughing at his anger, Leihard stopped him and stopped him from messing around again.They persuaded him to write a letter of thanks.But this letter was cold and forced because I didn't want to write it.Peter Suze's zeal was not shaken by it, and he wrote two or three more very affectionate letters.Christophe has never been very clever with Shuhan; although he felt a little change of heart because of the sincerity of the other party, he still interrupted their correspondence.As a result, there was no news from Suzy.Christophe also forgot about it.

Now he sees the Leharts every day, often several times a day.At night, they are almost always together.After being alone for a day, he physically needs to say something, pour out all the thoughts in his heart, no matter whether people understand or not, he also needs to laugh for a while, regardless of whether the laughter is reasonable or unreasonable, he needs to vent and relax. He made them some music: since he had no other way of expressing his gratitude to them, he sat at the piano and played for hours.Mrs. Leihart didn't understand music at all, so she managed to suppress herself so as not to yawn; but because she liked Christophe, she pretended to be very interested.Although Leihardt didn't understand better, he had a physiological reaction to certain music; at that time he would be so moved that tears would come to his eyes; he himself thought this expression was simply nonsense.At other times, it made no difference: he heard only the sound of a commotion.Generally speaking, what he is moved by is often the most ordinary part and the most meaningless passage in the works.The couple pretended to know Christophe; Christophe was willing to believe so.Of course, he often joked with them in a playful heart, playing some worthless miscellaneous songs, making them think he composed them.He didn't tell his prank until they were done praising him.So they were on guard; from then on, whenever he played a piece with an air of unfathomable profoundness, they suspected that he was playing tricks again, and tried to criticize him as much as possible.Christophe let them talk, agreed with them, said that this kind of music was really worthless, and then suddenly laughed:

"Oh, you bastards! You're right! . . . I did it!" He was overjoyed at playing them.Mrs. Lehart, a little annoyed, came and gave him a little slap; but his innocent smirk made them laugh too.They never think that they are infallible.Since neither the left nor the right, they decided that in the future, Lili Leihardt would always be in charge of criticism, and her husband would always be in charge of compliments: in this way, they could be sure that one of them would be in line with Christophe's vision. Meaning. In their eyes, Christophe's loveliness is not because he is a musician, but because he is honest and honest, a little crazy, but sincere and energetic.People saying bad things about him only increased their goodwill towards him: like him, they were flustered by the air in the small town, and they were as straightforward as him, and they had to judge everything by their own minds, so they regarded him as someone who didn't understand. The older boy who is worldly has suffered the loss of frankness.

Christophe had no illusions about the two new friends; he felt very sorry to think that they did not understand-never understand the deepest side of himself.But he lacked friendship and desperately needed it, so he was grateful for how much they liked him.The experience of the last year told him that he could no longer be demanding.Two years ago, he would never have had this kind of patience.He thought of how harshly he had treated the repulsive but kind Yu Lai family, and couldn't help regretting and laughing.Oh!He has learned it all! ...He sighed, and said to himself: "But how long?" Thinking of this, he smiled and felt comforted at the same time.

How he wished to have a friend, a friend who understood him and was close to him; but although he was young, he already had considerable experience in society and knew that this kind of wish was the hardest to realize, and he couldn't hope for a better friend than before. True artists are happier.He already knew a little of the history of such people.Part of Leihardt's collection made him acquainted with the difficult experiences of seventeenth-century German musicians.At that time, wars were still frequent, epidemics were prevalent, families were ruined, and the whole nation was ravaged by foreign races. They were discouraged, had no courage to fight, and had no interest in anything. ①A great mind—especially the heroic Schütz—has always been unremittingly rushing ②to his future.Christophe thought: "Who has the right to complain after seeing such an example? They have no people, no future, and only write for themselves and God. What they write today may be destroyed tomorrow, but they continue to write they are not discouraged, and nothing can shake their cheerfulness. They are content to sing, to live, to earn a living, to express their thoughts artistically, to find two or three Honest people who are not artists and cannot understand them love them sincerely: they don’t ask for anything else from life.—And he, Christophe, dares to be more demanding than them? There is a minimum in life. Happiness can be hoped for, but no one has the right to have extravagant expectations: if you want a little more happiness, you have to create it yourself, and you can’t ask others.”

-------- ①The seventeenth century was the era of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), and the political situation in the Germanic states was extremely chaotic ②Schutz (1585-1672) is known as the ancestor of German music in the history of music Thinking of this, he calmed down and liked the honest Leihardt couple even more.It never occurred to him that even this last friendship would have to be taken away. He didn't expect the viciousness of the mainlanders.Their hatred, because it has no target, can't be eliminated.The hatred that really has a name, once it achieves its goal, the hatred will slowly dissipate.But those who do evil for boredom never rest; for they are ever bored.And Christophe became a victim of their leisure.Although he was knocked down, he didn't appear to be downcast.Although he no longer bothers people, he doesn't take them to heart either.He asked for nothing, and nothing could be done about him.He was happy with his new friend, and he didn't care what anyone thought or said about him.This kind of situation makes people angry.And Mrs. Lehart was even more irritating.She openly befriended Christophe in disregard of the opinions of the whole city, just as her usual attitude was to offend public opinion.Lili Lehart didn't mean to be troublesome about people or things; she just went her own way without asking other people's opinions.But this is the most heinous provocation. Everyone secretly pays attention to their actions.They were unaware.Christophe is presumptuous, Madame Lehart is confused, and they don't know the scruples when they go out together, or when they talk and laugh on the balcony at night.They are very affectionate in their actions, and they unknowingly gave people the material to spread rumors. One morning, Christophe received an anonymous letter in which he was said to be Mrs. Lehart's lover.He looked stunned.He never even thought of flirting with her; he was too square, with a puritanical abhorrence of adultery, to bear even the thought of it.Bullying a friend's wife was a heinous crime in his eyes; and Lili Leihardt, especially, he could not commit this crime: she is not beautiful at all, why should she arouse his enthusiasm? He looked at his friends in shame and embarrassment, and found that they were equally embarrassed.Each of them also received an anonymous letter, and they dared not speak out; the three of them secretly watched each other, and at the same time, they also took care of themselves, they did not dare to act casually, and did not dare to speak, panicked and froze.If Lili Lehart regained her innocent nature for a moment, laughing and talking nonsense, her husband or Christophe would give her a sudden look, which made her startled for a moment, and immediately remembered the anonymous letter and panicked. Get up; Christophe and Lehardt also panic.Everyone is thinking in their hearts: "Do they know?" They don't reveal a word to each other, trying to live the same life as before. But the continual stream of anonymous letters, in increasingly obscene terms, made them unbearably turbulent and humiliated.They hid aside when they received it, and they didn't have the courage to throw it into the fire intact. They opened it with trembling fingers, and unfolded the letter paper in a panic. When they read the words and sentences that they were afraid of reading, they had the same title but the content The insults with slight changes, the absurd and absurd rumors created by the troublemakers, all wept quietly.After much deliberation, they couldn't figure out who was entangled with them there. One day, Mrs. Leihart was so miserable that she told her husband about her persecution; and he also said with tears that he was suffering the same.Shall I tell Christophe?They dare not.But he had to be told to be more cautious. ——Mrs. Leihart blushed and said a few words, and she was very surprised to find that Christophe also received those anonymous letters.People's hearts are so vicious that they can't relax, which makes them afraid.Mrs. Lehart thought the whole town was doing them a disservice.But instead of supporting each other, they were all discouraged.They don't know what to do.Christophe said he was going to cut off the man's head. —but who was that man?And I can only add more information for the rumormongers... Just hand over those letters to the police station, and then spread the rumors... It's impossible to fake dementia.Their friendship has suffered.Lehard absolutely believed that both his wife and Christophe were men of integrity, but he couldn't help being suspicious.He found this suspicion shameful and absurd; he wanted to leave Madame and Christophe alone.But he was suffering; and Lili saw it clearly. On her side it was even worse.She, like Christophe, never thought of flirting.But those rumors hinted at her absurd notion that Christophe might really be in love with her; and though he hadn't expressed it at all, she thought she should at least be on the defensive, not of course by expressive words, Instead, he used some clumsy methods; Christophe didn't understand it at first, and when he understood it, he was very angry.That's a lot of nonsense!Said he would fall in love with this ugly and ordinary little bourgeois! ...and she believed it! ...and he couldn't justify himself, couldn't say to her and her husband: "Come on! Don't worry! There is absolutely no such danger! . . . " No, he couldn't offend this good couple.And he felt that she was afraid of falling in love with him because she loved him a little in her bones; and this absurd and legendary idea was indeed the root planted by those anonymous letters. The relationship between them had become so stiff, so embarrassing, it couldn't go on.Lili Lehart only has a strong mouth, but no strong character, and has no idea about the insidiousness of the local people.They come up with all kinds of excuses to avoid seeing each other, such as "Mrs. Lehart is not feeling well... Lehart has something to do... They are going away for a few days..." etc., are all clumsy lies, often unintentionally. Show flaws. Christophe was more cheerful, he said: "Let's part, poor friends! We are not strong enough." The Leharts cried together. ——But after the decision, they were indeed relieved. The people in the city are very proud.This time Christophe was indeed alone.Everyone deprived him of his last breath;--this breath is tenderness, however thin it may be, but without it a human heart cannot live.