Rilke - Sonnets To Orpheus 6 Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

Shall we reject those ageless companions of our youth,
the great and undemanding gods, because the systems
we are now creating cannot be programmed
to recognize them? Where are they in our modern schemes,

these powerful friends who silently take the dead from us?
They are outside our busy materialistic world.
We no longer gather at the ancient places
and their messengers, now too slow, we bypass.

Lonelier now, wholly dependent on ourselves
yet not knowing one another, we no longer
tread the twisting paths but rush straight ahead.

Only in nuclear reactors now the old forces
still operate unchallenged, driving us into a future
wherein we, mere humans, diminish in scale and power.


A free version of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus Bk1.24
Sollen wir unsere uralte Freundschaft, die grossen

To hear my setting of these words visit soundcloud.com/mmsteer/ search
sonnets-to-orpheus-rilke