Origin of Philosophy
In the time we’ve known
That we each are a part of one another
We’ve lost as much as we have won
And as our lives have grown
We have found that it only brings us pain
That hangs on to the things that we have done
Still I love the times you’ve come
When you went away
Taking all that I’d built my false road on
I dropped my life and couldn’t find the pieces
Now you come and go
And it’s hard but I feel my strength returning
We’ll see how far this new road reaches
We’ll see a little more each time we come
Now everybody’s gonna tell you its not worth it
Everybody’s gotta show you their own pain
You might try to find your way up around it
But the need for love will still remain
Now we’re lying here
So safe in the ruins of our pleasures
Laughter marks the place where we have fallen
And our lives are near
So it wouldn’t occur to us to wonder
Is this the past or the future that is calling
You know I’ve loved these times you’ve come.
Ignorant before the heavens of my life,
I stand and gaze in wonder. Oh the vastness
of the stars. Their rising and descent. How still.
As if I didn’t exist. Do I have any
share in this? Have I somehow dispensed with
their pure effect? Does my blood’s ebb and flow
change with their changes? Let me put aside
every desire, every relationship
except this one, so that my heart grows used to
its farthest spaces. Better that it live
fully aware, in the terror of its stars, than
as if protected, soothed by what is near.
From Ahead of All Parting:
The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke
Edited and Translated by Stephen Mitchell