I grabbed it. Read it over the last two weeks, a little bit each night right before sleep. It reads like a simple fable. Don't know if the simplicity of the style is Hesse's or if it's as a result of the translation (Hilda Rosner 1951).
It's an easy read. But so much happens in such a short time. I found myself re-reading passages frequently. Don't know how I missed this one so many years ago in my serious Zen phase - Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Siddhartha was written in 1922 but wasn't translated into English until 1951. It seems like a seminal novel that must have inspired the West goes East movement for the Beats and others.
It's a book of "wisdom" but as the text tells us wisdom has to be experienced. To speak the words makes them sound foolish. Anyway, the book hit the bullseye for me. Right message. Right time.
Listen to the river. Yes. And last night, in deep sleep, I heard these words from an unknown source... "I have always been here."
