A one

3 November 1899, at night

...Why am I suddenly writing so much? Because I once again: begin. Today, suddenly-“today” is a beginning, a one. Beginning of what? A one before what? Before a long number, before millions perhaps. And one doesn’t know from which numbers the great sum came. I have never added up-but occasionally I’ll find a result at the edge of a page and turn and not transfer it onto the new leaf. What for? It is all one book…

(Excerpt from Diaries of a young poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, Translated by Edward Snow & Michael Winkler. Published by W. W. Norton & Company, 1998)