Milan Kundera Works Series: Immortality

Author: Milan Kundera
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-06-01
Features: The immortality Goethe talked about has nothing to do with the immortality of the soul. This is a different kind of worldly immortality, referring to the immortality of those who remain in the memory of later generations after death. Anyone can achieve this kind of immortality, which varies in greatness and duration. Everyone can have this aspiration from their youth. In my childhood, I often wandered around a Moravian village every Sunday; it was said that the village mayor kept an open coffin in his living room, and at moments when he felt particularly satisfied with himself, he would lie inside it, imagining his own funeral. The most beautiful moments of his life were undoubtedly lying in the coffin, dreaming: in this way, he lived in his immortality.