'stand guard over the solitude of the other'

I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other. For, if it lies in the nature of indifference and of the crowd to recognize no solitude, then love and friendship are there for the purpose of continually providing the opportunity for solitude. And only those are the true sharings which rhythmically interrupt periods of deep isolation.

—Rainer Maria Rilke, letter dated Feb. 12, 1902, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke: Volume 1, 1892–1910 (trans. Greene & Norton 1945)