Before Summer Rain

   
Suddenly, from all the green around you,
something-you don't know what-has disappeared;
you feel it creeping closer to the window,
in total silence. From the nearby wood

you hear the urgent whistling of a plover,
reminding you of someone's Saint Jerome:
so much solitude and passion come
from that one voice, whose fierce request the
downpour

will grant. The walls, with their ancient portraits, glide
away from us, cautiously, as though
they weren't supposed to hear what we are saying.

And reflected on the faded tapestries now;
the chill, uncertain sunlight of those long
childhood hours when you were so afraid.


Rainer Maria Rilke
(1875-1926)
 
© Copyright 1998-2009  Creekwalker.  All Rights Reserved.

Photography: Merced Creek, Yosemite by George Lauterstein; Shakespeare
& Co. Bookstore, Paris;  Swing on Oaks, Vermont by Schmidt