Sunday, November 18, 2012

Annunciation ~ Words of the Angel


You are not nearer God than we;
he's far from everyone.
And yet your hands most wonderfully
reveal his benison.
From woman's sleeves none ever grew
so ripe, so shimmmeringly:
I am the day, I am the dew,
you, Lady, are the Tree.

Pardon now my long journey's done,
I had forgot to say
what he who sat as in the sun,
grand in his gold array,
told me to tell you, pensive one
(space has bewildered me).
I am the start of what's begun,
you, Lady, are the Tree.

I spread my wings out wide and rose,
the space around grew less;
your little house quite overflows
with my abundant dress.
But still you keep your solitude
and hardly notice me:
I'm but a breeze within the wood,
you, Lady, are the Tree.

The angels tremble in their choir,
grow pale, and seperate:
never were longing and desire
so vague and yet so great.
Something perhaps is going to be
that you perceived in dream.
Hail to you! for my soul can see
that you are ripe and teem.

You lofty gate, that any day
may open for our good:
you ear my longing songs assay,
my word - I know now -  lost its way
in you as in a wood.

And thus your last dream was designed
to be fulfilled by me.
God looked at me: he made me blind....

You, Lady, are the Tree


- Rainer Maria Rilke



1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing this amazingly creative and beautiful poem by Rainer Maria Rilke. The poem depicts the thoughts of Gabriel the angel upon his visit to Mary who is pregnant with Jesus. The angel refers to Mary as the "Tree." The Tree that bears the fruit of her womb. Perhaps also indirectly alluding to the eventual cross. Perhaps indicating the importance of being the Mother, providing the space and the love necessary for the light to manifest. I feel it is the genius and soul of Rainer Maria Rilke that can make the ordinary into something extraordinary and bring the extraordinary back to earth with a spirit of irreverent wonderment. It is sheer poetic brilliance. I love this poem for its lack of any sense of religious catechism.

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