Q: Why didn't Rilke just write, "Consider your life sacred. Consider all other lives sacred." Why did he have to be such an asshole? (asks
William Keckler)
A: "Rilke was distressed because he could not find an adequate German word for 'palm of hand.'" [He rejected
Handfläche, flats of the hand, and the archaic
Handteller, hollow of the hand.] (André Gide via Beckett via
Mark Nixon.)