This difficult living, heavy and as if all tied up,
moving through that which has been left undone,
is like the not-quite-finished walk of the swan.And dying, this slipping away from
the ground upon which we stand every day,
is his anxious letting himself fall-:into the waters, which receive him gladly
and which, as if happily already gone by,
draw back under him, wave after wave;
while the swan, infinitely calm and self-assured,
opener and more magnificent
and more serene, allows himself to be drawn on. (Rainer Maria Rilke)

This difficult living, heavy and as if all tied up, moving through that which has been left undone, is like the not-quite-finished walk of the swan.And dying, this slipping away from the ground upon which we stand every day, is his anxious letting himself fall-:into the waters, which receive him gladly and which, as if happily already gone by, draw back under him, wave after wave; while the swan, infinitely calm and self-assured, opener and more magnificent and more serene, allows himself to be drawn on.

Rainer Maria Rilke

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calm day dying draw fall ground heavy left letting living moving opener receive serene slipping stand swan under undo walk wave while

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