The Swan

"The Swan" by Rainer Maria Rilke; translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

 

This laboring of ours

with all that remains undone,

 as if still bound to it,

 is like the lumbering gait of the swan.

 

And then our dying—releasing ourselves

from the very ground on which we stood—

 is like the way he hesitantly

 lowers himself into the water.

 

 It gently receives him, and, gladly yielding,

flows back beneath him, as wave follows wave,

 while he, now wholly serene and sure,

with regal composure, allows himself to glide.

Go to the Limits of your Longing by Ranier Maria Rilke, translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
 then walks with us silently out of the night.These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you:
 beauty and terror. Just keep going.
No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me. Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.Book of Hours, I 59