Reading a poem in translation is like kissing a woman through a veil.
Anne MichaelsRead
No one is born just once. If you're lucky, you'll emerge again in someone's arms; or unlucky, wake when the long tail of terror brushes the inside of your skull.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the cycles of life and the experiences that shape our existence.
Anne Michaels suggests that life is not a singular event; rather, we undergo multiple transformations through our relationships and experiences. The fortunate emerge embraced by love, while the unfortunate may wake to fear and despair, highlighting the duality of human experience and the profound impact of connection and adversity.
Themes
LifeTransformationRelationshipsExperiencePhilosophyLove
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a speech about the importance of resilience in life.
More from Anne Michaels
All quotes →Hold a book in your hand and you're a pilgrim at the gates of a new city.
Anne MichaelsRead
When my parents were liberated, four years before I was born, they found that the ordinary world outside the camp had been eradicated. There was no more simple meal, no thing was less than extraordinary: a fork, a mattress, a clean shirt, a book. Not to mention such things that can make one weep: an orange, meat and vegetables, hot water. There was no ordinariness to return to, no refuge from the blinding potency of things, an apple screaming its sweet juice.
Anne MichaelsRead
If love wants you; if you've been melted down to stars, you will love with lungs and gills; with feathers and scales; with warm blood and cold.
Anne MichaelsRead
Long after you’ve forgotten someone’s voice, you can still remember the sound of their happiness or their sadness. You can feel it in your body.
Anne MichaelsRead
Love makes you see a place differently, just as you hold differently an object that belongs to someone you love. If you know one landscape well, you will look at all other landscapes differently. And if you learn to love one place, sometimes you can also learn to love another.
Anne MichaelsRead
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