"I know what death is,

I am an old retainer of his;

and believe me, he’s overrated.

Almost nothing to him.

Of course, all kinds of beastliness

can happen beforehand —

but it isn’t fair to count those in,

they are as living as life itself,

and can just as well lead up to a cure.

But about death —

no one who came back from it

could tell you anything,

because we don’t realize it.

We come out of the dark

and go into the dark again,

and in between

lie the experiences of our life.

But the beginning and the end,

birth and death,

we do not experience;

they have no subjective character,

they fall entirely in the category

of objective events,

and that’s that.”

(Behrens from Magic Mountain)