Rainer Maria Rilke (Trans. M.D. Herter Norton)
12 (Second Part)
Will transformation. O be enraptured with flame,
wherein a thing eludes you that is boastful with changes.
that projecting spirit, which masters the earthly,
loves in the swing of the figure nothing so much as the point of inflection.
What shuts itself into remaining already is starkness;
does it think itself safe in the shelter of inconspicuous gray?
Beware, from afar a hardest comes warning the hard.
Woe --, an absent hammer lifts!
Who pours himself forth as a spring, him Cognizance knows;
and she leads him enchanted through the realm of serene creation,
that often ends with beginning and with ending begins.
Every happy space they wander wondering through
is child or grandchild of parting. And the transformed Daphne, since feeling
laurel-like, wants you to change yourself into wind.