World was in the face of the beloved –,
but suddenly it poured out and was gone:
world is outside, world can not be grasped.
Why didn’t I, from the full, beloved face
as I raised it to my lips, why didn’t I drink
world, so near that I could almost taste it?
Ah, I drank. Insatiably I drank.
But I was filled up also, with too much
world, and drinking, I myself ran over.
~Rainer Maria Rilke
Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry
and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke
Edited and Translated by Stephen Mitchell
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