‘Autumn Day’

Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,
and on the meadows let the wind go free.

Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine;
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine.

Whoever has no house now, will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the
evening,
and wander the boulevards, up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.


Poem written in Paris, September 1902, by Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

Translated by Stephen Mitchell



Today is the last day of British Summer Time. The days are fast growing shorter. From tomorrow the darkness will fall earlier, and I am already starting to feel my annual seasonal blues.
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/seasonal-affective-disorder-sad/about-sad/