I wanted to write a battle song for the Judeans but so far I can think of nothing noble and weighty enough

I can only say that one's individual situation is more real and important to oneself than the devastations of fates and empires especially when they do not vitally affect oneself

You mustnt forget the circumstances I have been brought up in, the little education I have had.

Poetical appreciation is only newly bursting on me.

I wanted to write a battle song for the Judeans but so far I can think of nothing noble and weighty enough

I will not leave a corner of my consciousness covered up, but saturate myself with the strange and extraordinary new conditions of this life, and it will all refine itself into poetry later on.

Nobody ever told me what to read, or ever put poetry in my way