“World world sister world
When shall I tire of you.
When my bread is dry
When my hand forgets my glass
When the coffin’s boxed me in
Maybe that’s when I’ll be tired of you.
…
Living is despairing
And the dead they rot away”

— Herta Müller , book The Appointment

Michael Hulse and Philip Boehm translation, Picador 2002, p. 92
The Appointment (1997)

Original

Welt, Welt, Schwester Welt Wann hab ich dich satt Wenn mein Brot mir trocken ist Das Glas mich in der Hand vergisst Wenn das Sargbrett schlägt um mich Vielleicht dann hab ich dich satt … Wer geboren ist, verzweifelt Wer gestorben ist, verrottet.

The Appointment (1997)

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Herta Müller 28

German-Romanian novelist, poet and essayist 1953

Louis MacNeice (1907–1963) poet

"Prayer Before Birth", line 11

“And enough for me that when my hand touched your shoulder, you leaned on me; and when you felt me slip away, you called my name.”

Orson Scott Card book Children of the Mind

Source: Children of the Mind

“You know my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. There comes a time.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Montgomery Bus Boycott speech, at Holt Street Baptist Church (5 December 1955) http://www.blackpast.org/?q=1955-martin-luther-king-jr-montgomery-bus-boycott
1950s
Variant: You know my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. There comes a time.

“I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)
Context: I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.