O you tender ones, walk now and then <br />into the breath that blows coldly past, <br />Upon your cheeks let it tremble and part; <br />behind you it will tremble together again. <br /> <br />O you blessed ones, you who are whole, <br />you who seem the beginning of hearts, <br />bows for the arrows and arrows' targets-- <br />tear-bright, your lips more eternally smile. <br /> <br />Don't be afraid to suffer; return <br />that heaviness to the earth's own weight; <br />heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas. <br /> <br />Even the small trees you planted as children <br />have long since become too heavy; you could not <br />carry them now. But the winds...But the spaces.... <br /> <br /> <br />Translated by Stephen Mitchell<br /><br />Rainer Maria Rilke<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-sonnets-to-orpheus-iv/
