Real hunger is when one man regards another man as something to eat.
Tadeusz BorowskiRead
neither poems nor prose just a length of rope just the wet earth -- that's the way home. neither vodka nor bread just bursts of rage just more new graves -- that's youth and that's love. neither sleep nor waking neither joy nor laughter just tears in the night -- so the rope, paper, knife.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote depicts the complexities of love and youth, highlighting the struggles and pains that come with them.
In this quote, Tadeusz Borowski reflects on the paradoxes of love and youth, emphasizing that these experiences are often marked by pain and hardship rather than joy. The imagery of a 'length of rope' and 'wet earth' suggests the weight and grounding effect of these emotions, while the references to 'bursts of rage' and 'tears in the night' paint a vivid picture of the emotional turmoil that accompanies deep feelings. Overall, the quote encapsulates the reality that love and youth are intertwined with sorrow and struggle.
Themes
LoveYouthPainEmotionStruggle
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared at a literary discussion about the complexities of love.
More from Tadeusz Borowski
All quotes →Similar quotes
But love is blind and lovers cannot see
William ShakespeareRead
Writers are great lovers. They fall in love with other writers. That's how they learn to write. They take on a writer, read everything by him or her, read it over again until they understand how the writer moves, pauses, and sees. That's what being a lover is: stepping out of yourself, stepping into someone else's skin.
NatalieRead
I desire to press in my arms the loveliness which has not yet come into the world.
James JoyceRead
If in my youth I had realized that the sustaining splendour of beauty of with which I was in love would one day flood back into my heart, there to ignite a flame that would torture me without end, how gladly would I have put out the light in my eyes.
MichelangeloRead
What we need to do is understand that we have to love each other, that we have to see each other have worth and dignity and value.
Cory BookerRead
That one can love another of the same gender, that is what the homophobe really cannot stand.
Stephen FryRead