FineLine

FINE LINES

Rainer Maria Rilke

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'

hierarchies? and even if one of them suddenly

pressed me against his heart, I would perish

in the embrace of his stronger existence.

For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror

which we are barely able to endure and are awed

because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.

Each single angel is terrifying.

And so I force myself, swallow and hold back

the surging call of my dark sobbing.

Oh, to whom can we turn for help?

Not angels, not humans;

and even the knowing animals are aware that we feel

little secure and at home in our interpreted world.

The Inferno of Dante (trans. Robert Pinsky)

              CANTO I

Midway on our life's journey, I found myself

In dark woods, the right road lost.  To tell

About those woods is hard--so tangled and rough

And savage that thinking of it now, I feel

The old fear stirring: death is hardly more bitter.

And yes, to treat the good I found there as well

I'll tell what I saw, though how I came to enter

I cannot well say, being so full of sleep

Whatever moment it was I began to blunder

Off the true path.  But when I came to stop'

Below a hill that marked one end of the valley

That had pierced my heart with terror, I looked up

Toward the crest and saw its shoulders already

Mantled in rays of that bright planet that shows

The road to everyone, whatever our journey.