the country they call life

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"Gott spricht zu jedem…/God speaks to each of us…" from Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, by Ranier Maria Rilke, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy:

God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me.

Flare up like flame and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.