Who shows a child as he really is? ... Who makes his death out of gray bread, which hardens – or leaves it there inside his round mouth, jagged as the core of a sweet apple? ... Murderers are easy to understand. But this: that one can contain death, the hole of death, even before life has begun, can hold it to one's heart gently, and not refuse to go on living, is inexpressible.We all hold death to our hearts gently; death is all around us and we come in contact with it every day. From the moment we are born we begin stepping closer to death...and that is inexpressible even to someone as gifted with the written word as Rilke.
-- from Rainer Maria Rilke's Fourth Elegy
Comparing death to a useless shell of food – an apple core, or a hard piece of bread – is genius. Death is not the entire opposite of life, rather the two haunt one another, and are dependent on one another to exist.
