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January 16, 2008
eternal beings
It’s not that I want to distinguish myself from the poor, when I walk around in better cloths that have always belonged to me, and when I insist on having somewhere to live. It’s just that I haven’t gotten as far as they have. I don’t have the courage to live that kind of life.
No, it’s not that I want to distinguish myself from them; but I would be overvaluing myself if I tried to be like them. I’m not. I have neither their strength nor their proportions. I eat three meals a day, and in between, my life doesn’t need any miracle to sustain it; but they exist on their own, almost like eternal beings. They stand on their daily corners, even in November, and don’t cry out when winter comes. The fog envelopes them and makes them indistinct and uncertain: they exist nevertheless. I went on a long journey, I got sick, many things went wrong in my life: but they didn’t die.
Rilke - The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
Posted by amin at January 16, 2008 12:36 AM