In The Beginning
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
Ever since those wondrous days of Creation
our Lord God sleeps: we are His sleep.
And He accepted this in His indulgence,
resigned to rest among the distant stars.
Our actions stopped Him from reacting,
for His fist-tight hand is numbed by sleep,
and the times brought in the age of heroes
during which our dark hearts plundered Him.
Sometimes He appears as if tormented,
and His body jerks as if plagued by pain;
but these spells are always outweighed by the
number of His countless other worlds.
Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 28 sec read
- 256 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXX BAXX XXXX B |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 530 |
Words | 95 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 1 |
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