Repetition

by Peter Handke

  So much for the old man. At the end of this story, however, though I may die before the day is out, I find myself in middle life; I look at the spring sun on my blank paper, think back on the autumn and winter, and write: Storytelling, there is nothing more worldly than you, nothing more just, my holy of holies. Storytelling, patron saint of long-range combat, my lady. Storytelling, most spacious of all vehicles, heavenly chariot. Eye of my story, reflect me, for you alone know me and appreciate me. Blue of heaven, descend into the plain, thanks to my storytelling. Storytelling, music of sympathy, forgive us, forgive and dedicate us. Story, give the letters another shake, blow through the word sequences, order yourself into script, and give us, through your particular pattern, our common pattern. Story, repeat, that is, renew, postpone, again and again, a decision that must not be. Blind windows and empty cow paths, be the incentive and hallmark of my story. Long live my storytelling! It must go on. May the sun of my storytelling stand forever over the Ninth Country, which can perish only with the last breath of life. Exiles from the land of storytelling, come back from dismal Pontus. Descendant, when I am here no longer, you will reach me in the land of storytelling, the Ninth Country. Storyteller in your misshapen hut, you with the sense of locality, fall silent if you will, silent down through the centuries, harkening to the outside, delving into your own soul, but then, King, Child, get hold of yourself, sit up straight, prop yourself on your elbows, smile all around you, take a deep breath, and start all over again with your all-appeasing “And then …”

  “The kings of old died;

  they could not find their food.”

  ZOHAR

  “I stayed with this one and that one.”

  EPICHARMUS

  “ … laboraverimus …”

  COLUMELLA

  ALSO BY PETER HANDKE

  Kaspar and Other Plays

  The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

  Short Letter, Long Farewell

  A Sorrow Beyond Dreams

  The Ride Across Lake Constance and Other Plays

  A Moment of True Feeling

  The Left-Handed Woman

  The Weight of the World

  Slow Homecoming

  Across

  Notes

  1 The Italian Caporetto. [Trans.]

  2 The Italian Gorizia. [Trans.]

  3 This brunch-word might be rendered as “childscape,” except that the word Kindschaft actually exists in the meaning of “filiation” or “adoption,” as in Romans 9:4, “the adoption, and the glory.” [Trans.]

  4 “Throttler” = shrike; “wolf’s milk” = spurge; “kitchen bell” = pasqueflower. [Trans.]

  Translation copyright © 1988

  by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc.

  All rights reserved

  Originally published in German

  under the title Die Wiederholung, © Suhrkamp Verlag 1986

  Published simultaneously in Canada by Collins Publishers, Toronto

  A portion of this book originally appeared,

  in somewhat different form, in The New Yorker

  Designed by Roxana Laughlin

  eISBN 9781466807013

  First eBook Edition : December 2011

  First edition, 1988

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Handke, Peter.

  Repetition.

  Translation of: Die Wiederholung.

  I. Title.

  PT2668.A5W4713 1988 833’.914 87-33065