The angels

Christian Century, May 15, 2007 by Rainer Maria Rilke

The angels

(translated from the German by Terese Coe)

   They all have tired mouths
   and bright spirits without seams.
   And a longing (as for sin)
   runs sometimes through their dreams.

   Each nearly resembles the others,
   hushed among God's flowers
   like many, many stages
   in His melody and power.

   Only when spreading their wings
   do they awake the wind,
   as if God riffled the pages,
   with broad sculptor's hands,
   of the dark book of beginning.