Presentiment
by Rainer Maria Rilke
( translation: Edward Snow )
I am like a flag surrounded by distances.
I sense the winds that are coming, and must live them,
While the things down below don’t yet stir:
The doors still close softly, and in the chimneys there’s silence;
The windows don’t tremble yet, and the dust is still calm.
Then I know the storms already and grow embroiled like the sea.
And spread myself out and plunge deep inside myself
And cast myself off and am entirely alone
In the great storm.