“Yes–the springtimes needed you. 

Often a star was waiting for you to notice it.

A wave rolled toward you out of the distant past,

or as you walked under an open window,

a violin yielded itself to your hearing.

All this was mission.

But could you accomplish it?

Weren’t you always distracted by expectation,

as if every event announced a beloved?” 

from Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke,

translated by Stephen Mitchell