Daily Email

Friday, June 13, 2025

Poem: Tenth Duino Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke

May I someday, at the exit of grim understanding,

sing out jubilation and praise to affirmative angels!

May none of the clear-struck hammers of the heart

fall on loose, uncertain or breaking strings.

May my streaming face make me more shining. May humble weeping

bloom. Oh nights, how dear you will be to me then,  

nights of grieving, Alas that I did not on my knees, kneeling more,

accept you, more yielding loose myself disconsolate sisters 

In your loosened hair. 

 

We spendthrifts of the sorrows.

How we stare ahead of them into mournful duration

to see if maybe they’ll end. But  they are really only

our winter-hardy foliage, our dusky evergreen, 

one of the seasons of our secret year - not only a season, 

but place, settlement, camp, grounds, habitation

 

Translator unknown


No comments:

Post a Comment