Thomas Merton

 

There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness

and purity, a silence that is a fountain of action

and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows

out to me from unseen roots of all created being.

Thomas Merton

Rilke

 

Autumn day

Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.

Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,

and on the meadows let the wind go free.

Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine;

grant them a few more warm transparent days,

urge them on to fulfillment then, and press

the final sweetness into the heavy wine.

Whoever has no house now, will never have one.

Whoever is alone will stay alone,

will sit, read, write long letters through the evening,

and wander along the boulevards, up and down,

restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.

Rainer Maria Rilke

translated by Stephen Mitchell