Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29

Quiet friend of such great distances, feel

your breath and how it expands the room.

Let yourself ring out among rafters hidden

inside the dark belfries.  What depletes you

will become a strength through this nourishing.

Go forth in this conversion, entering and leaving.

What is your greatest experience of suffering?

If what you drink is bitter, become wine.

On this night, be magical power in great excess

as you go by the way of the cross in your senses,

in the meaning held within such an unusual encounter.

And when the earthly realm has forgotten you,

to the quiet earth say:  I flow.

To the turbulent waters say:  I am.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, II, 29;

    translated by Mark S. Burrows (© 2011)