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StillnessQuote

I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want.

Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals

Literature

The story behind the card

Plath wrote this in her journal in 1950, during her first term as a student at Smith College in Massachusetts. The entry goes on: she can never live all the lives she wants either, or train herself in all the skills she wants. The journals she kept until 1962 were published in full in 2000 as The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, edited by Karen V. Kukil. The passage still speaks to readers: Matt Haig chose it as the epigraph of his 2020 novel The Midnight Library.

Türkçe oku
İstediğim bütün kitapları hiçbir zaman okuyamayacağım; olmak istediğim bütün insanlar hiçbir zaman olamayacağım.
Sylvia Plath, Günlükler

Plath bu satırları 1950'de, Massachusetts'teki Smith College'da öğrenciliğinin ilk döneminde günlüğüne yazdı. Devamında, istediği bütün hayatları yaşayamayacağını, edinmek istediği bütün becerileri de öğrenemeyeceğini söyler. 1962'ye kadar tuttuğu günlükler, 2000'de Karen V. Kukil'in hazırladığı The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath adıyla eksiksiz yayımlandı. Pasaj bugün de okura dokunuyor: Matt Haig, 2020'de çıkan romanı Gece Yarısı Kütüphanesi'ni bu sözlerle açar.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Sylvia Plath
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