我找到了你 主啊 在萬物之中

我找到了你 主啊 在萬物之中 在我所有的

同胞之中，他們隨著你的生命而律動

就像一顆微小的種子 在狹隘的空間裏沉睡 

於廣闊之中 產出自己巨大的可能

這個奇妙的法則 天地萬物運行的力量

是服從， 是在那個大全的世界裏 順勢而動 

於根部摸索 於枝幹裏殷實成長

然後在樹的頂梢升騰，猶如 死而複生

～～～～～～～～～～～～

The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke 

Edited and Translated by Stephen Mitchell

FROM The Book of Hours (1905)

I find you, Lord, in all Things and in all

I find you, Lord, in all Things and in all
my fellow creatures, pulsing with your life;
as a tiny seed you sleep in what is small
and in the vast you vastly yield yourself.

The wondrous game that power plays with Things
is to move in such submission through the world:
groping in roots and growing thick in trunks
and in treetops like a rising from the dead.

POEM ANALYSIS

Published by Ivan M. Granger at 9:07 am under Poetry

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2012/06/13/rainer-maria-rilke-i-find-you-lord-in-all-things/

Some days a bit of Rilke just feels right…

and in the vast you vastly yield yourself.

Isn’t that a great line? But it’s not just a nice poetic turn of phrase. In the second verse Rilke is really saying something of deep insight about this:

The wondrous game that power plays with Things
is to move in such submission through the world…

The “power” he is talking about is obviously not power over; not the domination of the warlord or the predator. Following on his first verse, we can read power as the power of the Lord “in all Things.” It is the power of life itself, awareness, presence. The use of the word “power,” makes us question the assumptions of common language: Perhaps this is real power, rather than the fleeting hold of force and fear. How are life and presence the greater power…?

This real power plays a game in the world of things. It asserts its power through submission, rather than control. Like water, it yields and so finds its destination. It allows, and so fulfills its purpose. It is supremely humble, and so able to be humbly present everywhere, in all things, without prejudice or rejection. It rises from the lowest to the highest, vivifying everything it touches–

groping in roots and growing thick in trunks
and in treetops like a rising from the dead.

This power flowing through us and all our “fellow creatures” binds us all with the same life. You’ll notice, it is not even our life at all. Rilke says “your life,” the Lord’s life. It is something we participate in, a current we ride as it flows through us and the world, but it is not our own. Rilke is hinting at a larger vision in which there is only one Life flowing through a million “Things.”

Hildegard von Bingen, the great medieval mystic, called this the Viriditas or Greening power of God.

Too much of our relationship with the natural world is built on ideas of separation and domination. Such foolishness can only ever harm us. When we see clearly, we see as Rilke does that we are part of the same shared Life. To harm the natural world is to rebel against God. Is that language too religiously loaded? Reread Rilke’s poem, and then think about it.

Have a lovely day in this lovely green world!