Raining Rilke

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http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/4027/

Again and again, however we know the landscape of loveand the little

churchyard there, with its sorrowing names,and the frighteningly

silent abyss into which the othersfall: again and again the two of us

walk out togetherunder the ancient trees, lie down again and

againamong the flowers, face to face with the sky.~ Rilke, "Again and

Again, However We Know the Landscape of Love" - Translated by Stephen

Mitchell

She who did not come, wasn't she determinednonetheless to organize and

decorate my heart?If we had to exist to become the one we love,what

would the heart have to create?Lovely joy left blank, perhaps you

arethe center of all my labors and my loves.If I've wept for you so

much, it's becauseI preferred you among so many outlined joys.~

Rilke, "Blank Joy" - Translated by A. Poulin

As once the winged energy of delight

carried you over childhood's dark abysses,

now beyond your own life build the great

arch of unimagined bridges.

 

Wonders happen if we can succeed

in passing through the harshest danger;

but only in a bright and purely granted

achievement can we realize the wonder.

 

To work with Things in the indescribable

relationship is not too hard for us;

the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,

and being swept along is not enough.

 

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out

until they span the chasm between two

contradictions...For the god

wants to know himself in you.

 

~ Rilke, "As Once the Winged Energy of Delight" - Translated by Stephen Mitchell

Exposed on the cliffs of the heart. Look, how tiny down

there,

look: the last village of words and, higher,

(but how tiny) still one last

farmhouse of feeling. Can you see it?

Exposed on the cliffs of the heart. Stoneground

under your hands. Even here, though,

something can bloom; on a silent cliff-edge

an unknowing plant blooms, singing, into the air.

But the one who knows? Ah, he began to know

and is quiet now, exposed on the cliffs of the heart.

While, with their full awareness,

many sure-footed mountain animals pass

or linger. And the great sheltered birds flies, slowly

circling, around the peak's pure denial.-But

without a shelter, here on the cliffs of the heart...

 

~ Rilke, "Here On the Cliffs of the Heart" - Translated by Stephen Mitchell

Only mouths are we. Who sings the distant heartwhich safely exists in

the center of all things?His giant heartbeat is diverted in usinto

little pulses. And his giant griefis, like his giant jubilation, far

toogreat for us. And so we tear ourselves awayfrom him time after

time, remaining onlymouths. But unexepectedly and secretlythe giant

heartbeat enters our being,so that we scream ----,and are transformed

in being and in countenance.~ Rilke, "Heartbeat" - Translated by

Albert Ernest Flemming

LoveAlways,

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