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...I will exile my thoughts if they think of you again, and I will rip my lips out if they say your name once more. Now if you do exist, I will tell you my final word in life or in death, I tell you goodbye.
Knut Hamsun
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The speaker expresses a deep pain stemming from love and loss, suggesting a desire to eradicate all thoughts of someone who has caused them anguish.

This quote reflects the intense emotional struggle of someone who is trying to detach themselves from a painful love. The imagery of exiling thoughts and ripping out lips signifies the depth of their emotional turmoil and the lengths they would go to escape the memories of the person they love. Ultimately, it reveals a poignant farewell filled with both love and sorrow, emphasizing the complexities of relationships and loss.

Themes

LovePainLossFarewellHeartbreak

In practice

Example use cases

In a poem about unrequited love, this quote can highlight the extremes of emotional pain.

More from Knut Hamsun

The intelligent poor individual was a much finer observer than the intelligent rich one. The poor individual looks around him at every step, listens suspiciously to every word he hears from the people he meets; thus, every step he takes presents a problem, a task, for his thoughts and feelings. He is alert and sensitive, he is experienced, his soul has been burned.
Knut HamsunRead
Earth and sea merged, the sea tossed itself in the air in a fantastic dance, into the shapes of men and horses and tattered banners. I stood in the lee of an overhanging rock and thought of many things.
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The writer must be able to revel and roll in the abundance of words; he must know not only the direct but also the secret power of a word. There are overtones and undertones to a word, and lateral echoes, too.
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The other one he loved like a slave, like a madman and like a beggar. Why? Ask the dust on the road and the falling leaves, ask the mysterious God of life; for no one knows such things. She gave him nothing, no nothing did she give him and yet he thanked her. She said: Give me your peace and your reason! And he was only sorry she did not ask for his life.
Knut HamsunRead
No worse fate can befall a young man or woman than becoming prematurely entrenched in prudence and negation.
Knut HamsunRead
In old age we are like a batch of letters that someone has sent. We are no longer in the past, we have arrived.
Knut HamsunRead

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