Unica Zurn, Untitled, 1960
**

from
"a Christian mon fils" >
"By giving up all hope
for warmth, I murder
the cold"

" As far as I know I have not received too much
from either man or woman, but enough
to feel it as a hindrance.

My intermittent efforts to be neither the one
nor the other have not brought me any
results. Why? Because I alone have taken
great pains with it. I never managed
to bring anything to a good conclusion on my own.
No one with whom I can discuss it.
Which is to say: no fellow sufferer. For only
he could give me encouragement
to continue with my efforts.
And that is my quandary."
[photocopied the entire manuscript part]

**
from "The Whiteness with the Red" >
" Anyone who has ever built a kite
with a child - anyone who has allowed themselves
to be guided more by the child than by
the useful instructions for constructing a kite,
knows how many smiling gazes of pure joy
one exchanges whilst making it.
And that is the best thing about building a kite.

What follows afterwards- that the kite won't fly,
or only half flies, crashes to the ground, tears or gets
forgotten,new and unused as it is, amongst the junk
on top of a cupboard - is of no importance compared with
the unalloyed pleasure of building a kite with a child.
And just as it is with the kite, so it is with other things."

_The Man of Jasmine & Other Texts_ Unica Zurn