Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were <br />behind you, like the winter that has just gone by. <br />For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter <br />that only by wintering through it all will your heart survive. <br /> <br />Be forever dead in Eurydice-more gladly arise <br />into the seamless life proclaimed in your song. <br />Here, in the realm of decline, among momentary days, <br />be the crystal cup that shattered even as it rang. <br /> <br />Be-and yet know the great void where all things begin, <br />the infinite source of your own most intense vibration, <br />so that, this once, you may give it your perfect assent. <br /> <br />To all that is used-up, and to all the muffled and dumb <br />creatures in the world's full reserve, the unsayable sums, <br />joyfully add yourself, and cancel the count. <br /> <br /> <br />Translated by Stephen Mitchell<br /><br />Rainer Maria Rilke<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-sonnets-to-orpheus-book-2-xiii/
