975. Presentiment - Rilke

Translated from the German by Edward Snow

I’m like a flag surrounded by distances.

I can sense the coming winds, and have to live them,

while things down below don’t stir yet:

the doors still close softly, and the chimneys hold silence;

the windows don’t tremble yet, the dust lies calm.

Then all at once the squalls arrive and I’m embroiled like the sea.

And I spread myself out and plunge deep inside myself

and cast myself off and am entirely alone

in the great storm.