Back to the Rilke quote. While in Japan in 2009, Gaga got a quote from Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet inked on the inside of her left arm in a curling German script. As she told Interview, the quote translates to: "In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?"
But wait, there's more! If you look veeeery closely, you can see the date "12-18-1974" written in the middle of Gaga's Rilke quote. The date honors her aunt, Joanne Stefani Germanotta, who died from lupus on that date at the age of 19 (and obv, this is the same aunt that inspired Gaga's Joanne album).
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