We deeply regret that illness keeps
Hermann Hesse in Switzerland. But his thoughts are with
us, and his gratitude speaks through this message which
he asked me to read to you: «In sending cordial and
respectful greetings to your festive gathering, I should
like above all to express my regrets at not being able to
be your guest in person, to greet and to thank you. My health
has always been delicate, and I have been left a permanent
invalid by the afflictions of the years since 1933 that
have destroyed my life's work and have again and again burdened
me with heavy duties. But my mind has not been broken, and
I feel akin to you and to the idea that inspired the Nobel
Foundation, the idea that the mind is international and
supra-national, that it ought to serve not war and annihilation,
but peace and reconciliation.
My ideal, however, is not the blurring
of national characteristics, such as would lead to an intellectually
uniform humanity. On the contrary, may diversity in all
shapes and colours live long on this dear earth of ours.
What a wonderful thing is the existence of many races, many
peoples, many languages, and many varieties of attitude
and outlook! If I feel hatred and irreconcilable enmity
toward wars, conquests, and annexations, I do so for many
reasons, but also because so many organically grown, highly
individual, and richly differentiated achievements of human
civilization have fallen victim to these dark powers. I
hate the grands simplificateurs, and I love the sense of
quality, of inimitable craftsmanship and uniqueness. As
your grateful guest and colleague I therefore extend my
greetings to Sweden, your country, to her language and civilization,
her rich and proud history, and her perseverance in maintaining
and shaping her individual nature. I have never been to
Sweden, but for decades many a good and kind thing has come
to me from your country since that first present which I
received from it: it is now forty years ago and it was a
Swedish book, a copy of the first edition of Christ Legends
with a personal dedication by Selma Lagerlöf; In the
course of years there has been many a valuable exchange
with your country until you have now surprised me with the
final great present. Let me express to you my profound gratitude.»
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Prior to the acceptance, Sigurd Curman,
President of the Royal Academy of Sciences, made the following
remarks: «Hermann Hesse has carried on his battle
against these microbes of the soul in the field of literature.
He has endeavoured, in his stylistically exquisite poems
and stories, to show us the way to rise out of this slough.
He shouts to all of us the motto of young Joseph Knecht
in Das Glasperlenspiel: <Transzendieren!> Advance,
mount higher, conquer yourself! For to be human is to suffer
an incurable duality, to be drawn toward both good and evil.
And we can achieve harmony and peace only when we have killed
the selfishness within us. This is Hesse's message to the
people of a ravaged age, resounding with screams of self-vindication
from East and West. It is principally as a profound philosopher
and bold critic of the contemporary period in his stories
that Hesse deserves the Nobel Prize.»
In Nobel Lectures, Literature
1901-1967
