"It is a fact that a man’s dying
is more the survivors’ affair than his own.
Whether he realizes it or not,
he illustrates the pertinence of the adage:
So long as we are, death is not;
and when death is present, we are not.
In other words, 

between death and us there is no rapport;
it is something with which 

we have nothing to do —
and only incidentally the world and nature.
And that is why all living creatures 

can contemplate it with composure,
with indifference, unconcern, 

with egoistic irresponsibility."

(Behrens from The Magic Mountain)