Progress

from The Book of Images, The First Book, Part Two

by Rainer Maria Rilke 1900

And again my deeper life rushes loudly,

as if it would flow now to a wider shore.

Ever more familiar to me are objects

and all images ever more examined.

I feel myself more trusting of the nameless:

with my sensations, like with birds, I extend

into the windy heavens from out of the oak,

and in the departing afternoon, the pond

sinks, my awareness, like standing on fish.

[trans A. Badagnani]