Thursday, February 19, 2009

Weltschmerz - Possibilities to Dodge?


Dawn - Kayhan Kalhor & Shujaat Hussain Khan

But we, when moved by deep feeling, evaporate; we
breathe ourselves out and away; from moment to moment
our emotion grows fainter, like a perfume. Though someone may tell us:
"Yes, you've entered my bloodstream, the room,the whole springtime
is filled with you . . . "--what does it matter? he can't contain us,
we vanish inside him and around him. And those who are beautiful,
oh who can retain them? Appearance ceaselessly rises
in their face, and is gone. Like dew from the morning grass,
what is ours floats into the air, like steam from a dish
of hot food. O smile, where are you going? O upturned glance:
new warm receding wave on the sea of the heart . . .
alas, but that is what we are. Does the infinite space
we dissolve into, taste of us then?


Duino Elegies, The Second Elegy - Rainer Maria Rilke

Notes : Bold face added.