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“Initiation” by Rainer Maria Rilke 🇦🇹 (4 Dec 187529 Dec 1926)
Translated from the German by Jessie Lemont
Whosoever thou art! Out in the evening roam
Out from thy room thou know’st in every part
And far in the dim distance leave thy home
Whosoever thou art.
Lift thine eyes which lingering see
The shadows on the foot-worn threshold fall
Lift thine eyes slowly to the great dark tree
That stands against heaven solitary tall
And thou hast visioned Life its meanings rise
Like words that in the silence clearer grow;
As they unfold before thy will to know
Gently withdraw thine eyes—