First a childhood, limitless and free
of goal and renouncing. O unconscious bliss.
Suddenly limits, fear, school, drudgery,
the fall into temptation and sharp loss.
Defiance. Bent, the child becomes the bender,
revenging on others what he suffered through.
Loved and dreaded, savior, wrestler, winner
and conqueror, inflicting blow on blow.
And then alone in vastness, light, and cold.
Yet deep within the person’s grown-up state,
a gasping for the first, the world of old. . . .
Then God leapt out from where he lay in wait.
— Translated from the German of Rainer Maria Rilke
by Susan McLean [1]
Links:
[1] https://www.ablemuse.com/v28/bio/susan-mclean
[2] https://www.ablemuse.com/digital-books-28/v28/digital edition/Complete Digital Version of -/Able Muse, Print Edition (Number 28), Winter 2020/2021