Rainer Maria Rilke: We are the driving ones

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We are the driving ones

Rainer Maria Rilke, Rainer Maria Rilke poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry, poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, poetry

by Rainer Maria Rilke
(1875 - 1926) Timeline

English version by
Stephen Mitchell

Original Language
German

We are the driving ones.
Ah, but the step of time:
think of it as a dream
in what forever remains.

All that is hurrying
soon will be over with;
only what lasts can bring
us to the truth.

Young men, don't put your trust
into the trials of flight,
into the hot and quick.

All things already rest:
darkness and morning light,
flower and book.

-- from The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell

Amazon.com

Themes

Dawn

Fire

Garden

Lotus

Night

Recommended Books

	Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke, Translated by Stephen Mitchell
	The Best of Rilke: 72 Form-True Verse Translations, Translated by Walter W. Arndt
	The Book of Hours: Prayers to a Lowly God, by Rainer Maria Rilke / Translated by Annemarie Kidder
	Duino Elegies, by Rainer Maria Rilke / Translated by David Young
	Engendering Inspiration: Visionary Strategies in Rilke, Lawrence, and H.D., by Helen Sword

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This is more than a beautiful poem by Rilke, it conveys a fundamental truth that is perceived directly in the ecstatic state: The sense of the frenetic movement of life and the world around us is illusory. When perceived clearly, all things are seen to be in deep rest -- and they are always so.

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