My turn shall also come: I sense the spreading of a wing.
Osip MandelstamRead
Perhaps my whisper was already born before my lips.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The whisper symbolizes an idea or expression that exists before being articulated.
This quote by Osip Mandelstam suggests that thoughts and feelings may have a life of their own before they are shared publicly. It emphasizes the notion that creativity, emotions, and ideas are intrinsic to our being, potentially needing only a voice to come into existence and be understood by others.
Themes
WhisperExpressionCreativityThoughtsArticulation
In practice
Example use cases
During a poetry reading to convey the essence of unexpressed feelings.
More from Osip Mandelstam
All quotes βThe people need poetry that will be their own secret_x000D_ To keep them awake forever,_x000D_ And bathe them in the bright-haired wave of its breathing.
Osip MandelstamRead
And I walk out of space Into an overgrown garden of values, And tear up seeming stability And self-comprehension of causes. And your, infinity, textbook I read by myself, without people - Leafless, savage medical book, A problem book of gigantic radicals.
Osip MandelstamRead
Perhaps the whisper was born before lips, And the leaves in treelessness circled and flew, And those, to whom we impart our experience as bliss, Acquire their forms before we do
Osip MandelstamRead
Similar quotes
If the work of our sanctification presents us with difficulties that appear insurmountable, it is because we do not look at it in the right way. In reality, holiness consists in one thing alone, namely, fidelity to God's plan. And this fidelity is equally within everyone's capacity in both its active and passive exercise.
Jean-Pierre De CaussadeRead
Canada will be a strong country when Canadians of all provinces feel at home in all parts of the country, and when they feel that all Canada belongs to them.
Pierre TrudeauRead
Litigant. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.
Ambrose BierceRead
Americans like to get rich fast. That this means we go broke fast, too, is something that we have become very good at forgetting. Our ignorance of history is matched only by our unfailing optimism; it's actually part of our optimism.
Jill LeporeRead
You could watch entire villages and see what everyone was doing. I watched NSA tracking people's Internet activities as they typed. I became aware of just how invasive U.S. surveillance capabilities had become. I realized the true breadth of this system. And almost nobody knew it was happening.
Edward SnowdenRead
I would like the church to be a place where the questions of people are honored rather than a place where we have all the answers. The church has to get out of propaganda. The future will involve us in more interfaith dialogue. ... We cannot say we have the only truth.
John Shelby SpongRead