Boris Pasternak - Death

Death

Boris Pasternak died of lung cancer in his dacha in Peredelkino on the evening of 30 May 1960. He first summoned his sons, and in their presence said, "Who will suffer most because of my death? Who will suffer most? Only Oliusha will, and I haven't had time to do anything for her. The worst thing is that she will suffer." Pasternak's last words were, "I can't hear very well. And there's a mist in front of my eyes. But it will go away, won't it? Don't forget to open the window tomorrow."

Shortly before his death, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church had given Pasternak the last rites. Later, in the strictest secrecy, an Orthodox funeral liturgy, or Panikhida, was offered in the family's dacha.

Read more about this topic:  Boris Pasternak

Famous quotes containing the word death:

    During these fits of absolute unconsciousness I drank, God only knows how often or how much. As a matter of course, my enemies referred the insanity to the drink rather than the drink to the insanity. I had indeed, nearly abandoned all hope of a permanent cure when I found one in the death of my wife.
    Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)

    and so this tree—
    Oh, that such our death may be!—
    Died in sleep, and felt no pain,
    To live in happier form again:
    From which, beneath Heaven’s fairest star,
    The artist wrought this loved guitar;
    Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

    An “unemployed” existence is a worse negation of life than death itself.
    José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)