Religion

A Watcher of Thy Spaces

by Rainer Maria Rilke 1875–1926

Translated by Jessie Lemont (1918) · From The Book of Hours

Religion

A watcher of Thy spaces make me,
Make me a listener at Thy stone,
Give to me vision and then wake me
Upon Thy oceans all alone.
Thy rivers' courses let me follow
Where they leap the crags in their flight
And where at dusk in caverns hollow
They croon to music of the night.
Send me far into Thy barren land
Where the snow clouds the wild wind drives,
Where monasteries like gray shrouds stand--
August symbols of unlived lives.
There pilgrims climb slowly one by one,
And behind them a blind man goes:
With him I will walk till day is done
Up the pathway that no one knows ...

MLA

Rilke, Rainer Maria. “A Watcher of Thy Spaces.” Translated by Jessie Lemont. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/rilke/52/.

Chicago

Rilke, Rainer Maria. “A Watcher of Thy Spaces.” Translated by Jessie Lemont. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/rilke/52/.

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