The church tower with its metal roof flowers in lovely blueness. Cries
of swallows hover around it, and a poignant shade of blue encircles it. The
sun rises high above it and gives color to the lead, yet the weathercock
crows silently aloft in the wind. When someone comes down from the belfry,
then life is still, and the descending figure seems very detached as the
image of the person emerges. The windows through which the bells sound are
like gates to beauty.
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The first lines of a fragmentary manuscript copied in 1823 by Wilhelm Waiblinger, a literary-minded university student. He writes that he took the poet out for walks, which could have included climbing the tower of the Stiftskirche in Tübingen, a short walk from the poet's lodgings. Perhaps this brief passage describes a person descending the shadowed steps from the church belfry to become transfigured in the sunlight.
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