You Invisible Poem!
Sonnets to Orpheus, Part 2, No. I
by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell
Breathing: you invisible poem! Complete
interchange of our own
essence with world-space. You counterweight
in which I rhythmically happen.
Single wave-motion whose
gradual sea I am;
you, most inclusive of all our possible seas–
space grown warm.
How many regions in space have already been
inside me. There are winds that seem like
my wandering son.
Do you recognize me, air, full of places I once absorbed?
You who were the smooth bark,
roundness, and leaf of my words.