Dear Leah,

Thank you for your visit and for your letter and for the poem. Some day,
if ever you have the time, I would like you to read it with me, and explain
to me, line by line, what it means to you.

My argument would be that this poem, like all poetry, points to what I might
feel and think which is beyond words, to a subjective experience beyond 
language. Indeed, I would argue that all language points to a reality
beyond language. None of Adorno's texts that I have read suggest to me
that he was aware of this quality of language. Surely his translators
were not. I often ask myself how it is possible (and what it means)
to presume for the translator to translate what the translator her-
or himself does not "understand"? What does it mean "to understand" a text? 
Or is there nothing to understand "beyond" the text? And are the words 
nothing more than symbols representing inscrutable illusions?

Last night I started to read the journal that Grandma composed day by
day in 1998. I found it a remarkable reflection - and reminder - of her
as a wonderful human being. Only at 2 a.m. was I able to put it down.
I then promptly fell asleep. When I awoke at 7 a.m., your letter was 
on my mind, but I understood I would only wake to sleep and that I couldn't 
answer you on only five hours of unconsciousness. Ultimately, I wake(d) to 
sleep at 11 a.m. Daylight was half gone, and I set out finally to write 
you an answer. Haven't decided what to do next; my plans are so ambitious 
that I don't know where to start. I learn by going where I have to go.

Love, Jochen