The great modernist poet of the twentieth century – about why questions in our lives are sometimes more important than answers.
“You are so young, your life is still at the very beginning, and I ask you very much: have patience, remembering that not everything has been decided in your heart yet, and love even your doubt. Your questions are like rooms locked with a key, or books written in a completely foreign language. Do not look now for answers that cannot be given to you, because these answers cannot become your life. Live now with questions. Perhaps then, little by little, without noticing it yourself, on some very distant day, you will live to see the answer. Rainer Maria Rilke*
* “Letters to a Young Poet Paperback” (R. Rilke “Letters to a Young Poet Paperback” WW Norton & Company, 1993)
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875‒1926) was a Czech-Austrian poet and novelist, a prominent figure in XNUMXth-century modernism. His legacy includes several poetry collections, one novel and several volumes of correspondence.