Steffi

“Oh oak tree, how they have pruned you.
Now you stand odd and strangely shaped!
You were hacked a hundred times
until you had nothing left but spite and will!

I am like you, so many insults and humiliations
could not shatter my link with life.
And every day I raise my head
beyond countless insults towards new light.
What in me was once gentle, sweet and tender
this world has ridiculed to death.
But my true self cannot be murdered.
I am at peace and reconciled.
I grow new leaves with patience
from branches hacked a hundred times.
In spite of all the pain and sorrow
I'm still in love with this mad, mad world.”
― Hermann Hesse, Bäume: Betrachtungen und Gedichte

“They were big and brave, superb scholars and scientists, musicians, actors and athletes, and they were idiots who were throwing it all away, even as their high culture lamented or roared in pain.”
― Ian McEwan, What We Can Know

“Childhood is long and narrow like a coffin, and you can’t get out of it on your own.”
― Tove Ditlevsen, Childhood

“Hatte [die Französin] Glück, dass sie es noch rechtzeitig gemerkt hat? Und was bedeutet in diesem Zusammenhang 'rechtzeitig'? Und was 'Glück'? Sie hat ja alles verloren - das Glück und die Liebe. Meine Mutter hingegen hat nichts verloren. [...] Ihre letzte Erinnerung war Liebe. Dass sie wirklich glücklich war. So rede ich es mir schön, denn meine Mutter war nicht glücklich. Sie hat auf Glück gewartet.”
― Sarah Kuttner, Mama & Sam