Wild honey smells of freedom The dust - of sunlight The mouth of a young girl, like a violet But gold - smells of nothing.
Anna AkhmatovaRead
I know beginnings, I know endings too, and life-in-death, and something else I'd rather not recall just now.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the cyclical nature of life and death, indicating a deep understanding of both beginnings and endings.
In this quote, Anna Akhmatova contemplates the dualities of existence β the start and the finish of life, as well as the profound experiences that exist between those states. The acknowledgment of 'life-in-death' suggests an awareness of how the end is intrinsically linked to the beginning, and how certain memories or experiences may be too painful to revisit, emphasizing the complexity of human emotions and the journey of life.
In practice
Using this quote in a eulogy to celebrate the life of a loved one.
Wild honey smells of freedom The dust - of sunlight The mouth of a young girl, like a violet But gold - smells of nothing.
And you know, I agree to everything: I will condemn, I will forget, I will give comfort to the enemy, Darkness will be light and sin lovely.
Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem too insignificant for our concern? Yet in my heart I never will deny her, Who suffered death because she chose to turn.
I myself, from the very beginning, Seemed to myself like someone's dream or delirium Or a reflection in someone else's mirror, Without flesh, without meaning, without a name. Already I knew the list of crimes That I was destined to commit.
If you were music I would listen to you ceaselessly And my low spirits would brighten up.
Not, not mine: it's somebody else's wound; I could never have borne it. So take the thing that happened, hide it, stick it in the ground; whisk the lamps away.
It's easy to become a satellite today without even being aware of it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power; the power of the dollar.
There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, Doing more murder in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilization they give me
I have never lived a life so much larger than death. (93)
It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
Life is life - whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage.
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