Letters and Papers From Prison (55 page)

In loyalty and gratitude,

Your Dietrich

THE FRIEND

Not from the heavy soil,
where blood and sex and oath
rule in their hallowed might,
where earth itself,
guarding the primal consecrated order,
avenges wantonness and madness -
not from the heavy soil of earth,
but from the spirit’s choice and free desire,
needing no oath or legal bond,
is friend bestowed on friend.

Beside the cornfield that sustains us,
tilled and cared for reverently by men
sweating as they labour at their task,
and, if need be, giving their life’s blood -
beside the field that gives their daily bread
men also let the lovely cornflower thrive.
No one has planted, no one watered it;
it grows, defenceless and in freedom,
and in glad confidence of life untroubled
under the open sky.
Beside the staff of life,
taken and fashioned from the heavy earth,
beside our marriage, work, and war,
the free man, too, will live and grow towards the sun.
Not the ripe fruit alone -
blossom is lovely, too.
Does blossom only serve the fruit,
or does fruit only serve the blossom -
who knows?
But both are given to us.
Finest and rarest blossom,
at a happy moment springing
from the freedom of a lightsome, daring, trusting spirit,
is a friend to a friend.

Playmates at first
on the spirit’s long journeys
to distant and wonderful realms
that, veiled by the morning sunlight,
glitter like gold;
when, in the midday heat
the gossamer clouds in the deep blue sky
drift slowly towards them -
realms that, when night stirs the senses,
lit by the lamps in the darkness,
like treasures prudently hidden
beckon the seeker.

When the spirit touches
man’s heart and brow
with thoughts that are lofty, bold, serene,
so that with clear eyes he will face the world
as a free man may;
when then the spirit gives birth to action
by which alone we stand or fall;
when from the sane and resolute action
rises the work that gives a man’s life
content and meaning -
then would that man,
lonely and actively working,
know of the spirit that grasps and befriends him,
like waters clear and refreshing
where the spirit is cleansed from the dust
and cooled from the heat that oppressed him,
steeling himself in the hour of fatigue -
like a fortress to which, from confusion and danger,
the spirit returns,
wherein he finds refuge and comfort and strengthening, is a friend to a friend.

And the spirit will trust,
trust without limit.
Sickened by vermin
that feed, in the shade of the good,
on envy, greed, and suspicion,
by the snake-like hissing
of venomous tongues
that fear and hate and revile
the mystery of free thought
and upright heart,
the spirit would cast aside all deceit,
open his heart to the spirit he trusts,
and unite with him freely as one.
Ungrudging, he will support,
will thank and acknowledge him,
and from him draw happiness and strength.

But always to rigorous
judgment and censure
freely assenting,
man seeks, in his manhood,
not orders, not laws and peremptory dogmas,
but counsel from one who is earnest in goodness
and faithful in friendship,
making man free.

Distant or near,
in joy or in sorrow,
each in the other
sees his true helper
to brotherly freedom.

At midnight came the air-raid siren’s song;
I thought of you in silence and for long -
how you are faring, how our lives once were,
and how I wish you home this coming year.

We wait till half past one, and hear at last
the signal that the danger now is past;
so danger - if the omen does not lie -
of every kind shall gently pass you by.

To Eberhard Bethge

[Tegel 21 August 1944]

Dear Eberhard,

It’s your birthday in a week’s time. Once again I’ve taken up the readings and meditated on them. The key to everything is the ‘in him’. All that we may rightly expect from God, and ask him for, is to be found in Jesus Christ. The God of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with what God, as we imagine him, could do and ought to do. If we are to learn what God promises, and what he fulfils, we must persevere in quiet meditation on the life, sayings, deeds, sufferings, and death of Jesus. It is certain that we may always live close to God and in the light of his presence, and that such living is an entirely new life for us; that nothing is then impossible for us, because all things are possible with God; that no earthly power can touch us without his will, and that danger and distress can only drive us closer to him. It is certain that we can claim nothing for ourselves, and may yet pray for everything; it is certain that our joy is hidden in suffering, and our life in death; it is certain that in all this we are in a fellowship that sustains us. In Jesus God has said Yes and Amen to it all, and that Yes and Amen is the firm ground on which we stand.

In these turbulent times we repeatedly lose sight of what really makes life worth living. We think that, because this or that person is living, it makes sense for us to live too. But the truth is that if this earth was good enough for the man Jesus Christ, if such a man as Jesus lived, then, and only then, has life a meaning for us. If Jesus had not lived, then our life would be meaningless, in spite of all the other people whom we know and honour and love. Perhaps we now sometimes forget the meaning and purpose of our profession. But isn’t this the simplest way of putting it? The unbiblical idea of ‘meaning’ is indeed only a translation of what the Bible calls ‘promise’.

I feel how inadequate these words are to express my wish, namely to give you steadfastness and joy and certainty in your loneliness. This lonely birthday need not be a lost day, if it helps to determine more clearly the convictions on which you will base your life in time to come. I’ve often found it a great help to think in the evening of all those who I know are praying for me, children as well as grown-ups. I think I owe it to the prayers of others, both known and unknown, that I have often been kept in safety.

Another point: we are often told in the New Testament to ‘be strong’ (I Cor. 16.13; Eph. 6.10; II Tim. 2.1; I John 2.14). Isn’t people’s weakness (stupidity, lack of independence, forgetfulness, cowardice, vanity, corruptibility, temptability, etc.) a greater danger than evil? Christ not only makes people ‘good’; he makes them strong, too. The sins of weakness are the really human sins, whereas the wilful sins are diabolical (and no doubt ‘strong’, too!). I must think about this again. Good-bye; keep well, and don’t lose confidence. I hope we shall celebrate Renate’s birthday
¹⁹
together again. Thank you for everything. I keep thinking faithfully of you.

Your Dietrich

To Eberhard Bethge

[Tegel] 23 [August 1944]

Dear Eberhard,

It’s always an almost indescribable joy to get letters from you. The peace and quiet in which your last letter was written was especially splendid … The quotation about 1077 is really fine. So you’re giving yourself the chore of making selections from my very provisional thoughts. I’m sure that when you pass them on you will remember everything that ought to be remembered, won’t you … The thoughts all come from a period about 3-4 years ago!
²⁰
You can imagine how pleased I am that you’re bothering about them. How indispensable I would now find a matter-of-fact talk to clarify this whole problem! When that comes about, it will be one of the great days of my life. I think
that the poem about ‘Sorrow and Joy’ isn’t at all bad. But isn’t it a bit too contrived and literary? … You can also show Rainalter the other products with an easy conscience, if you want to talk about them. He doesn’t know me. Perhaps it would be best if he were to keep all these things. Renate will have written to you that Hans has meanwhile gone into the hospital in Brother Scharf’s community.
²¹
I’m very sorry for him and Christel, but perhaps he will have the advantage of quicker treatment.

Please don’t ever get anxious or worried about me, but don’t forget to pray for me - I’m sure you don’t! I am so sure of God’s guiding hand that I hope I shall always be kept in that certainty. You must never doubt that I’m travelling with gratitude and cheerfulness along the road where I’m being led. My past life is brim-full of God’s goodness, and my sins are covered by the forgiving love of Christ crucified. I’m most thankful for the people I have met, and I only hope that they never have to grieve about me, but that they, too, will always be certain of, and thankful for, God’s mercy and forgiveness. Forgive my writing this. Don’t let it grieve or upset you for a moment, but let it make you happy. But I did want to say it for once, and I couldn’t think of anyone else who I could be sure would take it aright.

Did you get the poem on freedom? It was very unpolished, but it’s a subject about which I feel deeply.

I’m now working at the chapter on ‘A Stocktaking of Christianity’. Unfortunately my output of work has come to depend increasingly on smoking, but I’m lucky enough to have a good supply from the most varied sources, so that I’m getting on more or less. Sometimes I’m quite shocked at what I say, especially in the first part, which is mainly critical; and so I’m looking forward to getting to the more constructive part. But the whole thing has been so little discussed that it often sounds too clumsy. In any case, it can’t be printed yet, and it will have to go through the ‘purifier’ later on. I find it hard work to have to write everything by hand, and it seems hardly legible. (Amusingly enough, I have to use German script, and then there are the corrections!) We shall see; perhaps I shall write out a fair copy.

Maria was here today, so fresh and at the same time steadfast
and tranquil in a way I’ve rarely seen … You ask how the smaller and the large work fit together. Perhaps one might say that the smaller work is a prelude to and in part an anticipation of the larger. By the way, H[ans] and 0[ster] were very interested in your missionary work; I had nothing to do with it. Nothing was said about it previously. Our connection is essentially through church music and academic theology; in addition, Renate was the great point of attraction …
²²

Now with all my heart I wish you further peace and quiet, outwardly and inwardly. God protect you and all of us and grant us a speedy reunion. With gratitude and loyalty and daily prayers. I’m always thinking of you.

Your D.

From Eberhard Bethge

S. Polo d’Enza, 24 August 1944

Dear Dietrich,

I really write to you much more often than I get words down on paper … Aroused by your thoughts, I’m reading Proverbs, The Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes with new delight. I can understand the complex much better. Proverbs 25.2
²³
is remarkable and really quite comforting. Job has become difficult for me again. Ecclesiastes 5.2-3
²⁴
is splendid, but has it been translated rightly? …

I well remember the conversations that time in your garden and my own resistance.
²⁵
What are your latest thoughts about ‘unconscious Christianity’? That’s very important. Please give best wishes to Linke and also thank him in my name. That’s all for today.

With many affectionate greetings.

Your Eberhard

From Eberhard Bethge

[S. Polo d’Enza] 26 August 1944

Dear Dietrich,

I would like to begin today to reply to your birthday letter and to thank you already for your thoughts and the way in which you’ve made the event such a fine one … You can’t give anything more personal than a poem.
²⁶
And you could hardly give me greater joy. There is no greater self-sacrifice, no better way of signifying an otherwise unattainable nearness than in a poem. And it is probably
the
form, because it makes visible the inwardness that is bound up and held in check within it. Unlimited surrender of the spirit awakens anxiety in the receiver. But this restrained surrender seems to me to be the highest degree of friendship and understanding. And as a result there is something very cheering and stimulating about it. Its touch is steadier and more far-reaching than that of a letter. Many thanks.

The parts of the construction that you think you ought to transpose and alter haven’t yet occurred to me. I find the language very finished. It’s splendid to see how whole complexes of shared experiences, insights and convictions are aroused in such strophes …

Your first three strophes are close to me in every phrase. Most striking and least comprehensible to me so far is the thought of the fourth, which you also expressed to me quite recently …

Accepting your present is a delicate matter. You know that I’m very fond of your lovely possessions and also of this ikon, and feel very much at home with them. They, and above all the pictures, are almost part of my everyday atmosphere. But each time that your gift in your present situation is more generous than before, in your effort to spread even more joy despite the hindrances, something in me protests that perhaps you’re parting with too much - so I would like to postpone acceptance until the time of the new freedom … It’s quite certain, of course, that it would hang
very
beautifully on our walls and that you would be able to enjoy it when you came, as it awoke all the memories of the rooms in Finkenwalde, Schlönwitz, Sigurdshof and Berlin. So you see, I’ve already half accepted it …

Do keep on writing to me, in such an exciting and cheering way. Very, very many thanks.

Your Eberhard

29 August … During the night there was some fighting here between partisans and Fascists. We’re making ourselves secure. They’re now getting more lively. But all is well with us. Greetings and many thanks.