a great song

Ich kreise um Gott, um den uralten Turm,
und ich kreise jahrtausendelang;
und ich weiss noch night: bin ich ein Falke, ein Sturm
oder ein grosser Gesang.

I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and I still don’t know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a great song.

Rainer Rilke, translated by Robert Bly
the poem, like the speaker, lives in growing orbits; the final metaphors move out in order of abstraction

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