"Die dreifache Warnung" (1911) by Arthur Schnitzler

The Triple Warning

by Arthur Schnitzler

In the scent of the morning, surrounded by the blueness of the sky, a young man wandered towards the waving mountains and felt his joyful heart beating in the same wave with all the pulses of the world. Unthreatened and free, his way carried him for many hours across the open country, until suddenly, at the entrance of a forest, all around him, near and far at the same time, incomprehensible, a voice sounded: "Do not go through this forest, young man, unless you want to commit murder." Shocked, the young man stopped, looked on all sides, and as there was no living being to be discovered anywhere, he realized that a spirit had spoken to him. His audacity, however, rebelled to be obedient to such a dark acclamation, and, only slightly moderating his gait, he strode forward undeterred, but with strained senses to catch a glimpse in time of the unknown enemy whom that warning might announce to him. No one met him, no suspicious sound was heard, and the young man soon stepped out of the heavy shadows of the trees into the open air unchallenged. Under the last broad branches he sat down for a short rest and sent his gaze over a wide meadow, towards the mountains, from which a rigid summit was already erected with a strict outline as the last high goal. But no sooner had the young man risen than the incomprehensible voice was heard for the second time, all around him, at once near and far, but more imploring than the first: "Do not cross this meadow, young man, unless you wanted to bring ruin to your fatherland." His pride forbade the young man to heed this new warning, yes, he smiled at the empty torrent of words that wanted to boast of mysterious sense, and hurried forward, uncertain whether impatience or restlessness inspired his step. Damp evening mists hazed the plain when he finally faced the rock face he set out to conquer. But no sooner had he set foot on the bare rock than it sounded around him, incomprehensible, near and far at the same time, more menacing than before: "No further, young man, unless you wanted to die." Now the young man sent a loud laugh into the air and continued his journey without hesitation or haste. The more dizzying the path carried him, the freer he felt his chest widen, and on the boldly climbed top the last splendour of the day glowed around his head. "Here I am!" he cried in a relieved voice. "If this was a test, good or evil, I have passed it. No murder burdens my soul, unhurt in the depths slumbers my beloved homeland, and I live. And whoever you may be, I am stronger than you, for I did not believe you, and I did right."

Then it rolled like a thunderstorm from the farthest walls and closer and closer: "Young man, you are mistaken!" and the thunderous force of the words threw the wanderer down.

But he stretched out lengthwise on the narrow ridge, as if it had been his intention to rest here, and with a mocking twitch of the corners of his mouth he spoke as if to himself: "So I really would have committed a murder and not even noticed it?"

And it roared around him: "Your careless step has trampled a worm."

The young man replied indifferently: "Neither a good nor an evil spirit spoke to me, but a witty spirit. I didn't know that there was anything like that floating in the air around us mortals."

Then there was a rumble all around in the pale twilight of the heights: "So you are no longer the same one who this morning felt his heart beating with all the pulses of the world in the same wave, that a life seems small to you, of whose lust and horror no knowledge penetrates into your deaf soul?"

"Is that what I meant?" replied the youth, frowning, "I am guilty a hundred and a thousand times, like other mortals whose careless step destroys innumerable little creatures over and over again without ill intent."

"But for the sake of one thing you were warned. Do you know what this worm was destined for in the infinite course of becoming and happening?"

With his head bowed, the young man replied: "Since I neither know nor can I know this, let it be humbly granted to you that on my walk through the woods I have just committed the murder that you wanted to prevent. But as I have done to wreak havoc on my meadow path, I am really eager to hear that."

"Did you see the colorful butterfly," he murmured, "a young man who fluttered at your right hand for a while?"

"I saw many, even the one you may mean."

"You saw many. Some of your lips drove away a breath from their course, but the one I mean was chased eastward by your wild breath, and so it fluttered for miles and on, until over the golden bars that enclose the royal park. From this butterfly, however, will come the caterpillar that will crawl over the young queen's white neck on a hot summer afternoon throughout the year and awaken her from her slumber so abruptly that her heart must freeze in her womb and the fruit of her womb must languish. And instead of the rightful sprout, cheated out of his existence, the king's brother inherits the kingdom, treacherous, vicious and cruel, as he created, he plunges the people into despair, indignation, and finally, for his own salvation, into the confusion of war, your beloved homeland to immeasurable ruin. All this is the fault of none other than you, young man, whose wild breath drove the colorful butterfly in that meadow eastward over golden bars into the king's park."

The young man shrugged his shoulders: "That all this can come to pass, as you foretold, invisible spirit, how can I deny it, since on earth one thing always follows from the other, even often monsters from small things and small things from monstrous things? But what should induce me to trust this very prophecy, since the other one that threatened me with death for my ascent of the rock did not come true?"

"Whoever climbed up here," he said, "must go down again if he desires to walk further among the living. Have you considered that?"

Then the young man rose abruptly, as if he were willing to make his way back at once. But when he stopped with sudden horror at the impenetrable night that surrounded him, he understood that he needed the light to begin so boldly, and in order to be sure of his clear senses for the morning, he stretched himself again on the thin ridge and longed fervently for the strengthening sleep. But as motionless as he lay there, his thoughts and senses remained awake, his tired eyelids painfully opened, and foreboding shivers ran through his heart and veins. The dizzying abyss was always before his eyes, which meant to him the only way back to life, he, who had otherwise thought himself safe everywhere of his step, felt doubts never known to rise up in his soul and rummage more and more painfully until he could no longer bear them and decided to dare the inevitable at once, than to await the day in agony of uncertainty. And again he rose to the presumptuous attempt to become a master of the dangerous path without the blessing of the bright, only with his groping step. But no sooner had he set foot in the darkness than he realized, like an irrevocable judgment, that his prophesied destiny must now be fulfilled in the shortest possible time. And in gloomy anger he cried out into the air: "Invisible Spirit, who warned me three times, whom I did not believe three times, and to whom I now bow as the strongest—before you destroy me, make yourself known to me."

And it rang through the night, embracing close and unfathomably distant at the same time: "No mortal has yet recognized me, I have many names. Destiny is what the superstitious call me, the foolish chance and the pious God. But to those who think they are the wise, I am the power that was at the beginning of all days and continues to work inexorably into eternity through all events."

"So I curse you in my last moment," cried the youth, with the bitterness of death in his heart. For if you are the power that was at the beginning of all days and continues to work into eternity through all events, then all this had to come as it came, then I had to walk through the forest to commit murder, had to wander across this meadow to ruin my fatherland, had to climb the rock to find my downfall - despite your warning. Why, then, was I condemned to hear it, three times, which was of no use to me? Did this also have to be the case? And why, O mockery above all mockery, must I whimper at the last moment my impotent why to you?"

Then there was an incomprehensible laugh to the young man, as if fleeing at the edges of the invisible sky, with a tremendous answer, heavy and serious. But as he tried to listen into the distance, the ground shook and slid beneath his foot, and already he fell down, deeper than millions of abysses deep - into a darkness in which lurked all the nights that have come and will come from the beginning to the end of the worlds.