Franz Schubert's “My Dream”

On July 3, 1822, Franz Schubert wrote a brief tale, entitled “My Dream.” His manuscript survives, as does a copy which was in the possession and probably in the hand of his intimate friend, Franz Schober. Ten years after Schubert's death, his brother, Ferdinand, presented the original manuscript to Robert Schumann, who published it in the February 5, 1839, issue of his journal, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik:1

I was a brother of many brothers and sisters. Our father and our mother were good. I was devoted to them all with a deep love. Once, my father took us to a feast [Lustgelage]. There my brothers became very merry. I, however, was sad. Then my father approached me and commanded me to enjoy the delicious food. But I could not, wherefore my father, becoming angry, banished me from his sight. I turned my steps away and, my heart full of infinite love for those who disdained it, wandered into a distant land. For long years I felt torn between the greatest grief and the greatest love. Then the news of my mother's death reached me. I hastened to see her, and my father, softened by sorrow, did not hinder my entrance. Then I saw her corpse. Tears flowed from my eyes. I saw her lying there like the happy old past, in which, according to the deceased's wish, we were to live as she herself once had.

And we followed her corpse in sorrow and the coffin sank down.—From that time on I again remained at home. Then my father took me once again into his favorite garden. He asked me if I liked it. But the garden was wholly repellent to me and I dared not say so. Then, flushing, he asked me a second time: did the

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garden please me? Trembling, I denied it. Then my father struck me and I fled. And for the second time I turned my steps away and, with a heart full of infinite love for those who disdained it, I again wandered into a distant land. For long, long years I sang songs. When I would sing of love, it turned to pain. And again, when I would sing of pain, it turned to love.

Thus l