Not So Innocent A Child

Read Anne Frank in my spare time back home, and I really like it. She was a teenager transitioning into adulthood as she wrote the diary, and while her personality was very different from mine, she contemplated on a lot of matters that I could relate with very well. Not the war probably, but we've all once struggled with the same things she went through.

I copy here an entry that touched me most so far (I haven't finished the book). I hope this bit won't violate the copyright -- which belongs to Anne Frank-Fonds (an email to them is on the way), also where you can find background information on her life.

[Edit 9 March 2007:]
I have received reply from the foundation that clarifies the copyright entitlement: the previous full entry is definitely too long to put up on the web. I rewrite this entry to include quotations only. I still want to share it in her own words since she already did it so well, and I don't want to interfere. I can assure you there's much more fun in reading her amusing description of her outer and inner world that's not captured here, so do consider getting the book. =)

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...I look back at that Anne Frank as a pleasant, amusing, but superficial girl, who has nothing to do with me. ...I'd like to live that seemingly carefree and happy life for an evening, a few days, a week. At the end of that week I'd be exhausted, and would be grateful to the first person to talk to me about something meaningful.

...Looking back, I realize that this period of my life has irrevocably come to a close; my happy-go-lucky, carefree schooldays are gone forever. I don’t even miss them. I’ve outgrown them.

...I lie in bed at night, after ending my prayers with the words 'Ich danke dir für all das Gute und Liebe und Schöne'*, and I'm filled with joy. I think of going into hiding, my health and my whole being as das Gute; ...the future, happiness and love as das Liebe; the world, nature and the tremendous beauty of everything... as das Schöne.

At such moments I don't think about all the misery, but about the beauty that still remains. ... [Mother's] advice in the face of melancholy is: 'Think about all the suffering in the world and be thankful you're not part of it.' My advice is: 'Go outside, ...enjoy the sun and all nature has to offer... try to recapture the happiness within yourself; think of all the beauty in yourself and in everything around you and be happy.'

I don't think Mother's advice can be right, because what are you supposed to do if you become part of the suffering? You'd be completely lost. On the contrary, beauty remains, even in misfortune. If you just look for it, you discover more and more happiness and regain your balance. A person who's happy will make others happy; a person who has courage and faith will never die in misery!


* Translation, taken from the book: "Thank you, God, for all that is good and dear and beautiful."

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From The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition
By Anne Frank
Edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler
Translated by Susan Massotty