THE FEELING OF TASTE
by contemplativeinquiry
Juicy apple, pear and banana,
Gooseberry … They all speak of
Death and life in the mouth … I have a presentiment …
Read it from a child’s expression
If she savours them. It comes from far, from far …
Aren’t you slowly becoming aware of something inexpressible in your mouth?
Where a moment ago there were words, a flowing discovery
Is released, startling, from the fruit’s flesh.
Venture to say what your apple is called.
This sweetness, which originally condensed itself,
Spreading out, slowly in being tasted rose up
To achieve a clarity, awake and of transparency,
Resonant of opposites, sunny, earthy, of the here and now – :
Oh the experience of it, the feeling, the joy -, immense!
From Rainer Maria Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus, translated by Robert Temple
contemplativeinquiry 