A Country Doctor

What am I doing in this eternal winter?

I have discovered your great wound. You are dying from this flower blooming on your side.

Thin, without fever, not cold, not warm, with empty eyes, without a shirt, the young man under the stuffed quilt heaves himself up, hangs around my throat and whispers in my ear, "Doctor, let me die.

Incidentally, it’s easy to write prescriptions, but difficult to come to an understanding with people.

Always asking the doctor for the impossible. They've lost their old faith; the priest sits home and picks his vestments to pieces, one after another; but the doctor is supposed to accomplish everything with his gentle, surgical hands.

Gaunt, without any fever, not cold, not warm, with vacant eyes, without a shirt, the youngster heaved himself up from under the feather bedding, threw his arms around my neck, and whispered in my ear: 'Doctor, let me die.

That's what people are like in my district. Always asking the impossible of their doctor. They have lost their old faith; the priest sits at home and picks his vestments to pieces, one by one; but the doctor is expected to accomplish everything with his sensitive surgical hand.

Once one responds to a false alarm on the night bell, there’s no making it good again—not ever.

My grandfather used to say: "Life is astonishingly short. Now in my memory, it is so compressed that I can hardly understand, for example, how a young person can decide to ride to the next village without being afraid - that apart from accidents - even the time allotted to a normal, happy life is far too short for such a journey." (From: the next village)

Mein Großvater pflegte zu sagen: 'Das Leben ist erstaunlich kurz. Jeztz in der Erinnerung drängt es sich mir so zusammen, daß ich zum Beispiel kaum begreife, wie ein junger Mensch sich entschließen kann ins nächste Dorf zu reiten, ohne zu fürchten, daß - von unglücklichen Zufällen ganz abgesehen - schon die Zeit des gewöhnlichen, glücklich ablaufenden Lebens für einen solchen Ritt bei weitem nicht hinreicht.