---
ga: 44
title: "Johannes, Capesius, Mary Fragment, eighth scene"
words: 745
---
# Johannes, Capesius, Mary Fragment, eighth scene

JOHANNES:  
These were the last strokes;  
I may call the work finished.  
It gives me deep satisfaction  
To have been able to test  
My skills on my beloved teacher.  
And since I am allowed to hear  
That your essence truly speaks to you  
From the picture,  
I am completely happy.

CAPESIUS:  
You call me your teacher,  
Because for three years  
I was allowed to speak to you about ideas,  
That presented themselves to my soul,  
As I wandered in spirit  
Through the nature of time and humanity.  
I feel clearly how insignificant  
Is what I gave you.  
I must compare it  
With that spirit which flows within you  
So from the depths  
Nature elevated to art.  
And I must think  
How strangely I spoke back then  
When I first got to know  
The circle of people  
In which you received the power  
To elevate yourselves so high.  
It is often almost mysterious to me  
How, despite all the fruits  
You can receive here,  
You could bear the desire  
In my way of thinking  
To see the development of the world.

JOHANNES:  
I, too, must think of your words.  
They have been deeply engraved  
In my heart; you said:  
It is as if you were not  
Rejected by us,  
Rather as if the way of thinking,  
To which we are faithfully inclined,  
Could not bear within itself  
What springs from your spirit.  
The three years  
In which I was allowed to listen  
To the words that flow so clearly from your lips,  
Have shown me in the most beautiful sense  
How fruitful it proves to be  
When serious research  
Connects with the light of the spirit  
Within the human being.  
I thank this light of the spirit  
For the power of creation  
Of which you have just spoken.  
The power of creation,  
Of which you just spoke.  
I thank it no less  
For the life to which I grow  
The knowledge that I found through you.

CAPESIUS:  
Yes, these last years,  
They brought true wonders  
Into my life.  
I got to know you,  
When you were in decline,  
And a fleeting glance  
At your faces already taught me  
How pain-ridden  
Your souls were.  
And these years have  
Not only made you happy people,  
They have transformed you into creators.  
And the proof of your creativity,  
Proves to me  
To be a wonderful effect  
Of your own spirit.  
I need only look  
At this work,  
Which brings my own nature  
Meaningfully to me in form  
And color.  
I have often pondered  
On the meaning of the words:  
O man, know thyself.  
Only today do I begin to sense  
This profound meaning,  
As you let my essence speak to me  
From the image,  
How it was so foreign to me before  
And yet how convincing it seems,  
As through the essence of the spirit  
You reveal it in your work.  
I would have to close myself off from  
My own sense of truth,  
If I wanted to deny  
That the light  
That works within you  
Can reveal man to himself  
In a way that must always remain closed to him  
If he only follows such thinking  
if they only follow a way of thinking  
that I have previously made my own.  
Yes, I see it clearly,  
there are other sources of spirit,  
and it is from them that the power flows  
to penetrate the meaningful word:  
O human, know thyself.

MARIA:  
My dear professor, you speak  
The word whose meaning  
Shines in a new light  
At every level of the mind.  
It conceals the deepest depths.  
It carries pain within it  
And also bliss.  
To achieve this,  
That he, in this image  
Of your own being  
Was able to show you so faithfully  
And through his work  
Could elicit the word from you,  
O man, know thyself,  
To do this, our John  
First had to experience all the suffering  
Of this high word of truth  
And he had to experience bliss  
In it.

CAPESIUS:  
It penetrates deep into my soul,  
What you have just said.  
And I carry a desire,  
To hear a great deal from you soon  
About these things.  
But you said that shortly  
Your friends want to come to you,  
To see the picture.  
I would not like to stand personally  
Next to my picture.  
I must therefore ask you  
To come another time.

MARIA:  
This dear soul already senses  
Something of the transformation  
That you have experienced.