From a Requiem

"When somewhere, from deep within me, there arises
the vivid sense of having been a child,
the purity and essence of that childhood
where I once lived: then I don't want to know it.
I want to form an angel from that sense
and hurl him upward, into the front row
of angels who scream out, reminding God."

Rilke

Eternal Returning

Rilke

Again and again, however we know the landscape of love

and the little churchyard there, with its sorrowing names,

and the frighteningly silent abyss into which the others

fall: again and again the two of us walk out together

under the ancient trees, lie down again and again

among the flowers, face to face with the sky.

Rilke

Leben und Tod: sie sind im Kerne Eins.

Wer sich begreift aus seinem eignen Stamme,

der preßt sich selber zu dem Tropfen Weins

und wirft sich selber in die reinste Flamme.

Life and death: they are one, at the core entwined.
Who understands himself from his own strain
presses himself into a drop of wine
and throws himself into the purest flame.

Christmas 1922, Mood trans.