Rainer Maria Rilke ~ A Life-Line

GO TO THE LIMITS OF YOUR LONGING

By Rainer Maria Rilke

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

From Rilke’s Book of Hours
translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows
(NY: Riverhead, 1997), I 59.

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4 thoughts on “Rainer Maria Rilke ~ A Life-Line

  1. Dear Dan,
    When I was introduced to The Human
    and the Holy I was making a painful
    transition in my life. You gave me a life
    line.
    Ten years later that life line remains
    strong.
    Deep gratitude to you and the H&H
    community.
    With love,
    Nuala.

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