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.

Let this Darkness be a Bell Tower

"Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower" by Rainer Maria Rilke; translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

 

Quiet friend who has come so far,

feel how your breathing makes more space around you.

Let this darkness be a bell tower

and you the bell. As you ring,

 

 

what batters you becomes your strength.

Move back and forth into the change.

What is it like, such intensity of pain?

If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

 

 

In this uncontainable night,

be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,

the meaning discovered there.

 

 

And if the world has ceased to hear you,

say to the silent earth: I flow.

To the rushing water, speak: I am.

 

http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2010/wild-love-for-world/

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