Ranier Maria Rilke

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MAYBE I AM TRAVELING
Rainer Maria Rilke

Maybe I am traveling, like some secret ore, 
through the hard veins of a mountain, alone.
And I'm in so deep that I see no door
and no distance: nothing but a single core
that draws in all things and changes them to stone.
I don't have much wisdom about misery. 
The darkness has made me smaller, it's true. 
Are you the one solid enough? Come, break through, 
so that all of your touch might happen to me, 
and all of my tears might happen to you.

(from The Book of Hours)

translation Paul Weinfield



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