Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926)
You, God, Who Live Next Door
You, God, who live next door—
If at times, through the long night, I trouble you
with my urgent knocking—
this is why: I hear you breathe so seldom.
I know you’re all alone in that room.
If you should be thirsty, there’s no one
to get you a glass of water.
I wait listening, always. Just give me a sign!
I’m right here.
As it happens, the wall between us
is very thin. Why couldn’t a cry
from one of us
break it down? It would crumble
easily,
it would barely make a sound.
Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) was an Austrian poet, whose poems often express a longing for God. This poem comes from Rilke’s Book of Hours where he tries to convey an intimacy and reciprocity between the divine and the ordinary (Riverhead, 2005), 53.
Selected by Amy Frykholm: amy@journeywithjesus.net
