Poem of the week

"I am too alone in the world, and yet not alone enough 

to make every moment holy.

I am too tiny in this world, and yet not tiny enough

just to lie before you like a thing,

shrewd and secretive.

I want my own will, and I simply want to be with my will,

as it goes toward action;

and in those quiet, hardly moving times,

when something is coming near,

I want to be with those who know secret things,

or else alone.

I want to be a mirror for your whole body,

and I never want to be blind, or too old

to hold up your heavy and swaying picture.

I want to unfold.

I don't want to stay folded anywhere,

because where I am folded, there I am a lie.

And I want my grasp of things

to be true before you. I want to describe myself

like a painting that I looked at

closely for a long time,

like a saying that I finally understood,

like the pitcher I use every day,

like the face of my mother,

like a ship

that carried me

through the wildest storm of all."

-Rainer Maria Rilke, "Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God"

Rainer Maria Rilke wrote this poem in German. Here is another translation of the same poem. I like them both.

I'm too alone in the world, yet not alone enough
to make each hour holy.
I'm too small in the world, yet not small enough
to be simply in your presence, like a thing -
just as it is.

I want to know my own will
and to move with it.
And I want, in the hushed moments
when the nameless draws near,
to be among the wise ones -
or alone.

I want to mirror your immensity.
I want never to be too weak or too old
to bear the heavy, lurching image of you.

I want to unfold.
Let no place in me hold itself closed,
for where I am closed, I am false.
I want to stay clear in your sight.

I would describe myself
like a landscape I've studied
at length, in detail;
like a word I'm coming to understand;
like a pitcher I pour from at mealtime;
like my mother's face;
like a ship that carried me
when the waters raged.

-translation by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
(I love their translations of his poems more than most I've read. Their book, "Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God" a 100 anniversary addition, contains the German text for any of my German friends out there who love poetry.)