“I am so afraid of people's words.
They describe so distinctly everything:
And this they call dog and that they call house,
here the start and there the end.I worry about their mockery with words,
they know everything, what will be, what was;
no mountain is still miraculous;
and their house and yard lead right up to God.I want to warn and object: Let the things be!
I enjoy listening to the sound they are making.
But you always touch: and they hush and stand still.
That's how you kill.”

—  Rainer Maria Rilke

Translated by Annemarie S. Kidder
In Celebration of Me (1909)

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Rainer Maria Rilke176
Austrian poet and writer 1875–1926

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