Serie III

“Quiet friend of the many distances, feel
how your breath expands the room.
Let yourself ring out among the rafters
of dark belfries. That which depletes you

will become a strength through this nourishing.
Go out and in again in transformation.
What's your deepest experience of suffering?
If drinking is bitter to you, become wine.

In the vastness of this night, be
a magic-power at the crossroad of your senses,
the meaning of their strange encounter.

And if the earthly has forgotten you,
say to the quiet Earth: I flow.
To the rushing water speak: I am.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnet 29, Sonnets to Orpheus (translated by Mark S. Burrows)