My life is not this steeply sloping hour by Rainer Maria Rilke

My life is not this steeply sloping hour
by Rainer Maria Rilke
trans. by Robert Bly

My life is not this steeply sloping hour,
in which you see me hurrying.
Much stands behind me; I stand before it like a tree;
I am only one of my many mouths,
and at that, the one that will be still the soonest.

I am the rest between two notes,
which are somehow always in discord
because Death’s note wants to climb over—
but in the dark interval, reconciled,
they stay there trembling.
And the song goes on, beautiful.

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This was introduced to me by my friend and mentor Bob Anderson. Rilke continues to work at the way we human mortal beings are caught between this and that, between the two notes, acknowledging Death’s presence. I love this idea that our lives are not these moments that we’re seen hurrying but a deeper presence that has weight beyond that.

Rilke, My life is not this steeply sloping hour. From the Stunden-Buch (Book of Hours, 1905), translated by Robert Bly