--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It seemed to work at first. I tried hard…" description: "\"“It seemed to work at first. I tried hard to forget, but there remained inside me a vague knot-of-air kind of thing. And as time went by, the knot bega..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cfc/haruki-murakami-21_art-of-life_it-seemed-to-work-at-first-i-tried-hard_3170850.jpg" --- # It seemed to work at first. I tried hard to forget, but… ![“It seemed to work at first. I tried hard to forget, but there remained inside me a vague knot-of-air kind of thing. And as time went by, the knot began to take on a clear and simple form, a form that I am able to put into words, like this: Death exists, not as the opposite but as a part of life…” quote by Haruki Murakami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cfc/haruki-murakami-21_art-of-life_it-seemed-to-work-at-first-i-tried-hard_3170850.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cfc/haruki-murakami-21_art-of-life_it-seemed-to-work-at-first-i-tried-hard_3170850.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cfc/haruki-murakami-21_art-of-life_it-seemed-to-work-at-first-i-tried-hard_3170850.jpg) > ““It seemed to work at first. I tried hard to forget, but there remained inside me a vague knot-of-air kind of thing. And as time went by, the knot began to take on a clear and simple form, a form that I am able to put into words, like this: Death exists, not as the opposite but as a part of life. Translate into words, it's a cliche, but at the time I felt it not as words but as that knot of air inside me. Death exists - in a paperweight, in four red and white balls on a billiard table - and we go on living and breathing it into our lungs like fine dust. Until that time, I had understood death as something entirely separate from and independent of life. The hand of death is bound to take us, I had felt, but until the day it reaches out for us, it leaves us alone. This had seemed to me the simple, logical truth. Life is here, death is over there. I am here, not over there. The night Kizuki died, however, I lost the ability to see death (and life) in such simple terms. Death was not the opposite of life. It was already here, within my being, it had always been here, and no struggle would permit me to forget that... I lived through the following spring...with that kind knot of air in my chest, but I struggled all the while against becoming serious. Becoming serious was not the same thing as approaching truth, I sensed, however vaguely. But death was a fact, a serious fact, no matter how you looked at it. stuck inside this suffocating contradiction, I went on endlessly spinning in circles...In the midst of life, everything revolved around death.”” [Haruki Murakami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/haruki-murakami/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The narrator realizes death is not separate from life but interwoven, a constant presence that shapes existence. **In simple terms:** Death is part of life, not its opposite. Key Takeaway Accept death as an integral part of living. Themes mortality existentialism interconnectedness Mood reflective somber Type philosophical literary When to use this quote - grief processing - philosophical reflection - creative writing - mental health coping Key Concepts impermanence the human condition awareness Questions to Reflect On - How does recognizing death within life change your daily choices? - Can you find peace in the inevitability of death? A Different Perspective The insight may overlook cultural or religious views that treat death as a distinct transition. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Art of life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art-of-life/) [Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death/) [Death Exists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death-exists-856742/) [Death Opposite](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death-opposite-244917/) [Hard to forget](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hard-to-forget/) [Kizuki Died](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kizuki-died-4318719/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Part of life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/part-of-life/) [Red and white](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/red-and-white/) [Suffocating Contradiction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/suffocating-contradiction-2329730/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) [Tried Hard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tried-hard/) [Understood Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/understood-death-578267/) ## Related quotes > [“Until that time, I had understood death as something entirely separate from and independent of life. 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Death was a silence that gave back no answer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marjorie-kinnan-rawlings/now-he-understood-this-was-death-death-was-a-silence-that-gave-back/) [Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marjorie-kinnan-rawlings/) > [“When Ungaretti lost his nine-year-old boy He understood that death is death In an extremely brutal way It was the most terrible event of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-hirsch/when-ungaretti-lost-his-nine-year-old-boy-he-understood-that-death-is/) [Edward Hirsch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-hirsch/) > [“You never understood what death meant until it calimed someone you were so close to. 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Nobody really…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-ferriss/what-advice-would-you-give-to-a-smart-driven-college-student-about-to/) [Timothy Ferriss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-ferriss/) [Browse all 957 Art of life quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art-of-life/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“It seemed to work at first. I tried hard to forget, but there remained inside me a vague knot-of-air kind of thing. And as time went by, the knot began to take on a clear and simple form, a form that I am able to put into words, like this: Death exists, not as the opposite but as a part of life. Translate into words, it's a cliche, but at the time I felt it not as words but as that knot of air inside me. Death exists - in a paperweight, in four red and white balls on a billiard table - and we go on living and breathing it into our lungs like fine dust. Until that time, I had understood death as something entirely separate from and independent of life. The hand of death is bound to take us, I had felt, but until the day it reaches out for us, it leaves us alone. This had seemed to me the simple, logical truth. Life is here, death is over there. I am here, not over there. The night Kizuki died, however, I lost the ability to see death (and life) in such simple terms. Death was not the opposite of life. It was already here, within my being, it had always been here, and no struggle would permit me to forget that... I lived through the following spring...with that kind knot of air in my chest, but I struggled all the while against becoming serious. Becoming serious was not the same thing as approaching truth, I sensed, however vaguely. 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I tried hard to forget, but there remained inside me a vague knot-of-air kind of…” — Haruki Murakami", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Haruki Murakami", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/haruki-murakami/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“It seemed to work at first....", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/haruki-murakami/it-seemed-to-work-at-first-i-tried-hard-to-forget-but-there-remained/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/haruki-murakami/it-seemed-to-work-at-first-i-tried-hard-to-forget-but-there-remained/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```