Hans Castorp's Desire (MM5) (2023) Painting by Noël Van Hoof

Thomas Mann – The Magic Mountain – Part 5

“What an immense festival of caresses lies in those delicious zones of the human body! A festival of death with no weeping afterward! Yes, good God, let me smell the odor of the skin on your knee, beneath which the ingeniously segmented capsule secretes its slippery oil! Let me touch in devotion your pulsing femoral artery where it emerges at the top of your thigh and then divides farther down into the two arteries of the tibia! Let me take in the exhalation of your pores and brush the down – oh, my human image made of water and protein, destined for the contours of the grave, let me perish, my lips against yours!”
When he finished speaking, he did not open his eyes; he remained just as he was – his head thrown back, his hands stretched out before him, still holding the little silver pencil – quivering and swaying there on his knees.
She said, “You are indeed a gallant suitor, one who knows how to woo in a very profound, German fashion.”
And she set her paper hat on his head.
“Adieu, my Carnival Prince! I can predict that you'll see a nasty rise in your fever chart this evening.”
Then she glided out of her chair, glided across the carpet to the door, where she stopped and turned halfway back to him, one bare arm raised, a hand on the hinge. Over her shoulder she said softly, “Don't forget to return my pencil.”
And she left.

(English translation by John E. Woods)

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Thomas MannThe Magic Mountain