Nelly Sachs: Tacktal vid nobelmiddagen 1966

In the summer of 1939 a German girl friend of mine went to Sweden to visit Selma Lagerlöf, to ask her to secure a sanctuary for my mother and myself in that country. Since my youth I had been so fortunate as to exchange letters with Selma Lagerlöf; and it is out of her work that my love for her country grew. The painter-prince Eugen and the novelist helped to save me.

In the spring of 1940, after tortuous months, we arrived in Stockholm. The occupation of Denmark and Norway had already taken place. The great novelist was no more. We breathed the air of freedom without knowing the language or any person. Today, after twenty-six years, I think of what my father used to say on every tenth of December, back in my home town, Berlin: «Now they celebrate the Nobel ceremony in Stockholm.» Thanks to the choice of the Swedish Academy, I am now in the midst of that ceremony. To me a fairy tale seems to have become reality.

In der Flucht
 welch grosser Empfang
 unterwegs –

Eingehüllt
 in der Winde Tuch
 Füsse im Gebet des Sandes
 der niemals Amen sagen kann
 denn er muss
 von der Flosse in den Flügel
 und weiter –

Der kranke Schmetterling
 weiss bald wieder vom Meer –
 Dieser Stein
 mit der Inschrift der Fliege
 hat sich mir in die Hand gegeben –

An Stelle von Heimat
 halte ich die Verwandlungen der Welt