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Rilke, Rainer Maria - 06 Second Elegy
Identifier
015328
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Herbert James Draper - Icarus
A description of the experience
Duino Elegies – Rainer Maria Rilke [The Second Elegy]
Every Angel is terror. And yet,
ah, knowing you, I invoke you, almost deadly
birds of the soul.
Where are the days of Tobias,
when one of the most radiant of you stood at the simple threshold,
disguised somewhat for the journey and already no longer awesome
(Like a youth, to the youth looking out curiously).
Let the Archangel now, the dangerous one, from behind the stars,
take a single step down and toward us: our own heart,
beating on high would beat us down.
What are you?