There is only a single, urgent task:
to attach oneself someplace to nature,
to that which is strong, striving, and bright
with unreserved readiness, and then
to move forward in one's efforts without any calculation or guile,
even when engaged in the most trivial and mundane activities.
Each time we thus reach out with joy, each time we cast our view
toward distances that have not yet been touched,
we transform not only the present moment and the one following
but also alter the past within us,
weave it into the pattern of our existence,
and dissolve the foreign body of pain
whose exact composition we ultimately do not know.
Just as we do not know how much vital energy
this foreign body, once it has been thus dissolved,
might impart into our bloodstream!
--Rainer Maria Rilke, (1875-1926), German poet, born in Bohemia
to attach oneself someplace to nature,
to that which is strong, striving, and bright
with unreserved readiness, and then
to move forward in one's efforts without any calculation or guile,
even when engaged in the most trivial and mundane activities.
Each time we thus reach out with joy, each time we cast our view
toward distances that have not yet been touched,
we transform not only the present moment and the one following
but also alter the past within us,
weave it into the pattern of our existence,
and dissolve the foreign body of pain
whose exact composition we ultimately do not know.
Just as we do not know how much vital energy
this foreign body, once it has been thus dissolved,
might impart into our bloodstream!
--Rainer Maria Rilke, (1875-1926), German poet, born in Bohemia
0 comments:
Post a Comment