Sometimes a Man

by Ranier Maria Rilke

 

Sometimes a man stands up during supper

 

and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,

 

because of a church that stands somewhere in the East.

 

And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead.

 

And another man, who remains inside his own house,

 

dies there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,

 

so that his children have to go far out into the world

 

toward that same church, which he forgot.