WORLD WAS

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926, Austrian

Translated by Stephen Mitchell

 

 

 

The Sun Tarot XIX, 1960, collage of cut papers (colour lithographs on paper) with window shade pull, and details below.

Jess (Jess Collins), 1923-2004, American. Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

World was in the face of the beloved–,

but suddenly it poured out and was gone:

world is outside, world can not be grasped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why didn’t I, from the full, beloved face

as I raised it to my lips, why didn’t I drink

world, so near that I could almost taste it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, I drank. Insatiably I drank.

 

 

 

 

 

But I was filled up also, with too much

world, and, drinking, I myself ran over.