"The last house..." a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke

The last house of this village stands
as alone as if it were the last house in the world.

The road, that the little village cannot hold,
moves on slowly out into the night.

The little village is but a place of transition,
expectant and afraid, between two vast distances,
a passageway along houses instead of a bridge.

And those who leave the village may wander
a long time, and many may die perhaps
along the way.


Rainer Maria Rilke
from The Book of Hours

(tr. Cliff Crego)