Gedanken für den Tag

Rainer Maria Rilke's mother was only 30 years old when she decided to end her marriage to Rilke's father. The educated woman then lived alone, traveled extensively, and observed her surroundings with keen awareness and a critical eye. In 1900, she published a small collection of aphorisms that she called "Ephemerides," notes for the day. More than a hundred years later, it is evident that many of these insights and views gained through experience and observation are indeed timeless. The subtle self-irony with which some of them are expressed still resonates today. This provided Hella Sieber-Rilke with a reason to republish them, supplemented by unpublished letters from the poet, who had advised on the creation and dissemination of the book.