We are the driving ones

by Rainer Maria Rilke

English version by Stephen Mitchell
Original Language German

We are the driving ones.
Ah, but the step of time:
think of it as a dream
in what forever remains.

All that is hurrying
soon will be over with;
only what lasts can bring
us to the truth.

Young men, don't put your trust
into the trials of flight,
into the hot and quick.

All things already rest:
darkness and morning light,
flower and book.

-- from The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell

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We are the driving