A Sabbath Poem (Rilke - 2)

          IF A SADNESS RISES IN FRONT OF YOU
          ~ by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

          You mustn't be frightened
          if a sadness
          rises in front of you,
          larger than any you have ever seen;
          if an anxiety,
          like light and cloud-shadows,
          moves over your hands and over
          everything you do.
          You must realize that something is
          happening to you,
          that life has not forgotten you,
          that it holds you in its hand
          and will not let you fall.

(from Letter to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke,
transl. Stephen Mitchell, New York, Vintage Books, 1986)