If no one else, the dying must notice how unreal, how full of pretense…

Rainer Maria Rilke
343 citations
If no one else, the dying must notice how unreal, how full of pretense, is all that we accomplish here, where nothing is allowed to be itself. ✨ Duino Elegies no. 4 (written 1912) (translation by Stephen Mitchell)
Death
17

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How I will cherish you then, you grief-torn nights! Had I only received you, inconsolable sisters, on more abject knees, only buried myself with more abandon in your loosened hair. How we waste our a … ▶

If no one else, the dying must notice how unreal, how full of pretense, is all that we accomplish here, where nothing is allowed to be itself. ✨ Duino Elegies no. 4 (written 1912) (translation by Stephen Mitchell)

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