Sonnets to Orpheus
O you delicate ones, step occasionally
into a breeze that's not aware of you,
and let it graze your cheeks, divide, and be
behind you, trembling, soon to merge anew.
O you among the blessed, you who are whole
and you who seem the impetus to hearts,
bows are for arrows, targets for the hole
arrows make, but your tear-bright smile outlasts
them. Don't fear suffering. And heaviness?
Return it to the earth, to earth's own weight.
Heavy the mountains, heavy are the seas.
When you were children you had planted trees.
They've grown too huge for you to hold.
Yet wait,
for there are breezes . . . for there are spaces . . .
- Rainer Maria Rilke
into a breeze that's not aware of you,
and let it graze your cheeks, divide, and be
behind you, trembling, soon to merge anew.
O you among the blessed, you who are whole
and you who seem the impetus to hearts,
bows are for arrows, targets for the hole
arrows make, but your tear-bright smile outlasts
them. Don't fear suffering. And heaviness?
Return it to the earth, to earth's own weight.
Heavy the mountains, heavy are the seas.
When you were children you had planted trees.
They've grown too huge for you to hold.
Yet wait,
for there are breezes . . . for there are spaces . . .
- Rainer Maria Rilke