Song of the sea

Song of the sea
by Rainer Maria Rilke

Timeless sea breezes,
sea-wind of the night:
you come for no one;
if someone should wake,
he must be prepared
how to survive you.

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Timeless sea breezes,
that for aeons have
blown ancient rocks,
you are purest space
coming from afar…

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Oh, how a fruit-bearing
fig tree feels your coming
high up in the moonlight.

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Published in: Der neuen Gedichte anderer Teil (New Poems, 1907)

Rainer Maria Rilke (1975-1926) was a poet and novelist. He was born in Praguebut traveled across Europe and Russia in his lifetime, living many years inAustria, Germany and Switzerland. He lived through the First World War and metsome of the most influential personalities of the 20th century. Rilke is one ofthe most lyrically intense poets, his poems reconcile beauty and suffering in amystical yet rich in imagery way.