Oh not because happiness exists,

that too-hasty profit snatched from approaching loss.

 

 

But because truly being here is so much; because everything here

apparently needs us, this fleeting world, which in some strange way

keeps calling to us. Us, the most fleeting of all.

 

 

...Ah, but what can we take along

into that other realm? Not the art of looking,

which is learned so slowly, and nothing that happened here. Nothing.

The sufferings, then. And, above all, the heaviness,

and the long experience of love,-- just what is wholly

unsayable.

-- from The Ninth Duino Elegy,

Rainer Maria Rilke,

translated by Stephen Mitchell

 

      脱离时间的男人

哦，不是因为眼前存在着幸福，

一件眼前损失的仓促的利益。

*

而是因为身在此时此地就很了不起；因为此时此地，

这倏忽即逝的一切，奇怪地

与我们相关的一切，似乎需要我们。我们，这最易消逝的。

*

……悲哉，又能带去什么呢？

不是此时此地慢慢学会的关照，

不是此时此地发生的一切。什么也不是。

那么，是痛苦。那么，首先是处境艰困，

那么，是爱的长久经验，——那么是纯粹不可言说之物