Besides, how could she bother about giving each and every one a correct impression of herself when all her thoughts centered around the one, Erik, th… - Jens Peter Jacobsen

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Besides, how could she bother about giving each and every one a correct impression of herself when all her thoughts centered around the one, Erik, the only one, her chosen lord, whom she loved with a passion that was not of herself and with an idolatrous worship that terrified her. She had imagined love to be a sweet dignity, not this consuming unrest, full of fear and humiliation and doubt. Many a time when the declaration seemed trembling on Erik's lips, she had felt as if it were her duty to put her hand on his mouth and warn him against speaking, accusing herself and telling him how she had deceived him and how unworthy of his love she was, how earthly and small and impure, so far from noble, so wretchedly low and common and wicked! She felt herself dishonest under his admiring gaze; calculating, when she failed to avoid him; criminal, when she could not bring herself to beg God in her evening prayer that He would turn Erik's heart from her in order that his life might be all sunlight and honor and glory. For she knew that her lowborn passion would drag him down.

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About Jens Peter Jacobsen

Jens Peter Jacobsen (7 April 1847 – 30 April 1885) was a Danish novelist, poet, and scientist, in Denmark often just written as "J. P. Jacobsen". He began the naturalist movement in Danish literature and was a part of the Modern Breakthrough.

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Alternative Names: J.Jacobsen
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Additional quotes by Jens Peter Jacobsen

Ma c'erano anche dei momenti in cui la solitudine della sua grandezza gli si appesantiva addosso e l'opprimeva. Quante volte, ahimè, dopo essere stato ad ascoltare se stesso in religioso silenzio per ore e ore, e dopo essere di nuovo tornato a vedere e a udire la vita intorno a sé e sentendola estranea a sé, miserabile e fuggevole, s'era sentito uguale a quel monaco che, nel bosco del convento, aveva udito soltanto un trillo dell'uccello del paradiso e, ritornatovi, trovò ch'erano passati cent'anni! E se il monaco era solo in mezzo alla gente ignota che viveva fra le tombe note, quanto più solo era lui, i cui veri contemporanei non erano ancor nati!

He was surprised at his own calm, but he did not have perfect faith in it. He felt as though something in the very depths of his being were bubbling, very softly, but persistently: welling up, seething, pressing on, but far, far away. He was in a mood as one who waits for something that must come from afar, a distant music that must draw near, little by little, singing, murmuring, frothing, rushing, roaring, and whirling down over him, catching him up he knew not how, carrying him he knew not whither, coming on as a flood, breaking as a surf, and then — But now he was calm. There was only the tremulous singing in the distance; otherwise all was peace and tranquility.

Det, mente hun, var hendes egentlige Væsen, det, som de rette Omgivelser vilde gjøre hende til, og hun drømte tusinde Drømme om hine sollyse Egne og fortæredes af Længsel efter sit rette, rige Jeg, og glemte, hvad der ligger saa nær at glemme, at selv de fagreste Drømme, selv de dybeste Længsler ikke lægger en eneste Tomme til Menneskeaandens Vækst.

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