In Love with Rilke

You ever have a poem that you read that you fall in love with? I finally tracked down the title of the poem from a book I had read a while back. It was a characters favorite poem, and only listed excerpts throughout the book. I do like Rilke, and have fun translating the German to English and back again. It was his poem that was in the book.
I have included it below for you in English, and hope that you enjoy it as much as I do! 😀

I Am Too Alone in This World- The Book of Hours

I am too alone in the world, and yet not alone enough
to make every hour holy.
I am too small in the world, and yet not tiny enough
just to stand before you like a thing,
dark and shrewd.
I want my will, and I want to be with my will
as it moves towards deed;
and in those quiet, somehow hesitating times,
when something is approaching,
I want to be with those who are wise
or else alone.
I want always to be a mirror that reflects your whole being,
and never to be too blind or too old
to hold your heavy, swaying image.
I want to unfold.
Nowhere do I want to remain folded,
because where I am bent and folded, there I am lie.
And I want my meaning
true for you. I want to describe myself
like a painting that I studied
closely for a long, long time,
like a word I finally understood,
like the pitcher of water I use every day ,
like the face of my mother,
like a ship
that carried me
through the deadliest storm of all.

Related articles

• Rilke’s Roses (visionsofapollo.wordpress.com)
• With Rilke – In The Moment (musingsonmarwah.wordpress.com)