Rainer Maria Rilke: “A Broad Melody Always Wakes Behind You”

Photographers Unknown, Interactions Between Men

“Whether it be the singing of a lamp or the voice of a storm, whether it be the breath of an evening or the groan of the ocean — whatever surrounds you, a broad melody always wakes behind you, woven out of a thousand voices, where there is room for your own solo only here and there. To know when you need to join in: that is the secret of your solitude: just as the art of true interactions with others is to let yourself fall away from high words into a single common melody.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, The Collected Works of Rainer Maria Rilke: The Complete Works PergamonMedis 

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