The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedRainer Maria Rilke
Title QuotedDuino Elegies / translated into English by James Blair Leishman and Stephen Spender
Date (Year/Month/Day)1966/02/03
ImprintNew York : W.W.Norton & Company. 1963
QuotationDistraction - from the illusory expectation of some fulfillment, which in the end is only a human loneliness. Warst du nicht immer noch von Erwartung zerstreut, als kündigte alles [eine] Geliebte dir an? [Were you not forever distracted by expectation, as if everything were announcing to you some (coming) beloved?] Distracted that is from the solemn Auftrag - [a commission entrusted to one by another] the [indecipherable] suddenly "giving itself" etc. Rilke (1st [Duino] Elegy)
Quotation SourceLearning to love: exploring solitude and freedom. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 6, 1966-1967.; Edited by Christine M. Bochen. / [San Francisco] : HarperCollins. 1997, p. 357
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