of hidden grapes. They would escape an earth that would be heaven to a shepherd.


57.

Freiburg i. Br., April 12, 1950

Beethoven, opus 111
Adagio, Conclusion


Hannah—

What is more beautiful-your picture or your letter? Only you yourself, and your having sent them both. There is something in the picture that was already glimmering the last few days you were here and that grew even more apparent in your features during the crossing. I.cannot name it. But it is what is loving about love that cast its light into my room when Elfride and you embraced. We will need time to make what has become of us our own:

That you came, that what grew close in us became the closest closeness; that Elfride was helpful with all of it, that our love needs her love; that everything, including your safe return home, is reflected, clarified, and validated in everything else.

All of this often makes me think of a passage from Augustine that you are surely familiar with:

Nulla est enim maior ad amorem invitatio, quam praevenire amando.1

This praeventus is the silent echo of a concealed adventus; it approaches the mystery of freedom; it is the font of the law that is taking shape.

The miracle that happened now dwells here. Your picture, and the way you look in it, bring that miracle into focus. And everything that drove you away and out into the world is captured in it: omnia et sublata et conservata et elevata.2 Hence, and


74

Hannah Arendt — Martin Heidegger: Letters 1925-1975