Translation of a quote from Walter Benjamin

Question

The quote appears in this article, and the original sentence is in this book.

Und was nimmst du mit diesem Kaffee nicht alles zu dir: den ganzen Morgen, den Morgen von diesem Tag und auch den verlorenen des Lebens.

Questions:

• What does the fragment "Und was nimmst du mit diesem Kaffee nicht alles zu dir" mean? "What you take with the coffee you is not all for you"? What does that even mean?
• Why verlorenen and not Verlorenen, as it's being used as a noun?

Answer 1

I think, this sentence is almost impossible to understand for a none-native speaker for two reasons:

1. there is an idiom in there
2. the poetic style of the sentence as a whole

was du nicht alles ...

Was du nicht sagst! means You don't say! So just as in the english phrase the nicht doesn't mean that you don't do it. It's quite the opposite: an amplifier.

So

Was nimmst du ... nicht alles zu dir

actually means, you take in a lot of stuff. The rest is poetry. With your coffee you take in the whole dawn, this day's morning and also the lost [morning] of your life.

Answer 2

Und was nimmst du mit diesem Kaffee nicht alles zu dir: …

And what stuff do you consume with this coffee: …

und auch den verlorenen (Morgen) des Lebens.

It's an ellipsis.