This is Stellar’s tattoo:

there are so many parts of this poem that resonate with me, however I chose the first line because it reminds me to stay fluid. If there is one thing I can be sure of it’s that everything is constantly transforming.

departure

Be ahead of all departure, as if it were already
behind you, like the winter which is almost over.
For among winters there is one so endlessly winter,
that, wintering through it, may your heart survive.

Be forever dead in Eurydice—, singing ascent,
praising ascent, returning to pure relation.
Here, among the disappearing, be, in the realm
of decline, be the ringing glass that shatters even as it sounds.

Be—and yet know Not-being’s condition,
the infinite ground of your innermost movement,
that you may bring it to completion but this one time.

To that which is used-up, as to nature’s abundant
dumb and mute supply, the unsayable sums,
joyfully add yourself and the result destroy.

- Excerpt from Sonnets to Orpheus XIII by Rainer Maria Rilke

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This post has 9 comments. Add your own.
ophelia - 16 Aug 09 at 12:52:03

I love Rilke. Your tattoo is beautiful, aesthetically and in meaning. <3

dklnsklz - 16 Aug 09 at 22:05:23

what font is that? its awesome

Amy - 20 Aug 09 at 13:14:43

anyone else want to know why it’s backward??

ophelia - 20 Aug 09 at 13:54:47

The picture was probably taken with Photo Booth, which captures the mirror-images.

gracee - 21 Aug 09 at 09:41:18

someone tell me what this font is, super duper please?? i’ve been looking for a font for so long, and i think this is perfect!!

Archie Pratt - 24 Aug 09 at 20:37:43

The picture is a mirror image, obviously taken in a mirror; what it actually says (for those who bother to look closely) is, “departure is all ahead of me”.

Severus Flecha - 25 Aug 09 at 15:17:11

The font is beatiful, as the poem.

@Archie: Ammm…no! It clearly says “be ahead of all departure”…
I think you should bother to look just a little bit closer.

giselle - 27 Aug 09 at 22:27:18

Oh, i love this!
what is the font??

sophia - 10 Oct 09 at 18:58:42

the font is called cuttyfruty…its a free font!