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Autumn day

Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,
and on the meadows let the wind go free.  

Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine;
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine.  

Whoever has no house now, will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the evening,
and wander along the boulevards, up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.

 - Rainer Maria Rilke
translated by Stephen Mitchell

 
"Autumn Day ," from Ahead of All Parting, poems of Rilke
edited and translated by Stephen Mitchell
copyright © 2006
Used by permission of Stephen Mitchell
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For the original text in German, see this page.