Lying in the grass

Is all this now ... illusory flowers,
Fuzzy colours of the bright summer meadow,
Soft blue stretches of heaven, some bee song,
Is all this now really a god’s
Groaning dreaming,
Some unconscious power’s crying for release?
The far-off line of mountains,
Fine and bold resting in the blue,
Is that too just a cramp,
Just a mad tension in seething nature,
Just grief, just pain, just a pointless testing,
Never resting, never in joyful movement?
Oh, no! Release me now, you monstrous dream
Of the world’s strain!
A midges’ dance in evening light rocks you,
And a bird’s cry rocks you,
A breath of wind cools my forehead
With affection.
Release me now, you primal human grief!
Let all be pain,
Yes, let all be strain and shadows -
But not this one sweet hour of life in the sunshine,
And not the scent of red clover,
And not the soft feeling of well-being
Deep within my soul.

Hermann Hesse, 1913 (translated by Scholar by the River)