Neighbor God

Neighbor God, I disturb you
in the long night with my fierce knocking
because I can hardly hear you breathe,
and I know you're alone in the huge room
and when you're thirsty
there's no one there to offer you a drink.

I'm listening all the time.
Give a small sign.
I'm very close.
Only a thin wall rests between us--
if a cry should rise from your mouth or mine,
the wall would crumble without a sound.

The wall is made of your images.
Your images stand in front of you like titles.
And when the light flares up in me, the light
through which my deepest self knows you,
it pours itself out in gold on your frames.
And then my weakening senses are cut off
from you, and left without a home.

Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated from the German by Annie Boutelle

Tanka: Out of dark...

Out of dark - sun rise
ending those feelings of death -
desperate emptiness.
Letting go old memories
light shines through existence -  now.
 
Welcome emptiness
worn out tracks left far behind
breathing open space.
Excitement no more needed
being  centered in oneself.
 
Faded enthusiasm
life of dedication ends
call echoed in vain.
Again turned back to myself
last question still stays open.

Night - lightning - thunder
finally abundant rain
cooling down sad hearts.
Suffering fellow men stay far
can't be reached by poet's word.

Light before sun rise
quietness of uncertainty -
standby creation.
Twilight zone - doubts left behind
rising sun's grace - vanished 'I'.

Presence in silence
freedom - nothing left to loose
ocean's shores are bridged.
Grill's song filling dimensions
no hold of - embracing all.

BeiYin 04.09.03

Brother Sun