Be Ahead of all Parting

Be ahead of all parting, as if it had already happened,

like winter, which even now is passing.

For beneath the winter is a winter so endless

that to survive it at all is a triumph of the heart.

Be.  And know as well the need to not be.

Let that endless ground of all that changes

bring you to completion now.

To all that has run its course, and to the vast unsayable

numbers of beings abounding in Nature

add yourself gladly, and undo the number.

Die Sonette an Orpheus, II, 13

Rainer Maria Rilke

On Sep 22, 2015, at 6:04 PM