Before Summer Rain

Portrait of Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875–1926

Suddenly, from all the green around you, something-you don't know what-has disappeared; you feel it creeping closer to the window, in total silence. From the nearby wood

you hear the urgent whistling of a plover, reminding you of someone's Saint Jerome: so much solitude and passion come from that one voice, whose fierce request the downpour

will grant. The walls, with their ancient portraits, glide away from us, cautiously, as though they weren't supposed to hear what we are saying.

And reflected on the faded tapestries now; the chill, uncertain sunlight of those long childhood hours when you were so afraid.

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