{"id":706,"date":"2008-10-22T13:40:59","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T20:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/22\/this-is-how-he-grows\/"},"modified":"2008-10-22T13:40:59","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T20:40:59","slug":"this-is-how-he-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/old\/2008\/10\/22\/this-is-how-he-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"This is how he grows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Man Watching<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>by Rainer Maria Rilke<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I can tell by the way the trees beat, after<br \/>\nso many dull days, on my worried windowpanes<br \/>\nthat a storm is coming,<br \/>\nand I hear the far-off fields say things<br \/>\nI can&#8217;t bear without a friend,<br \/>\nI can&#8217;t love without a sister<\/p>\n<p>The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on<br \/>\nacross the woods and across time,<br \/>\nand the world looks as if it had no age:<br \/>\nthe landscape like a line in the psalm book,<br \/>\nis seriousness and weight and eternity.<\/p>\n<p>What we choose to fight is so tiny!<br \/>\nWhat fights us is so great!<br \/>\nIf only we would let ourselves be dominated<br \/>\nas things do by some immense storm,<br \/>\nwe would become strong too, and not need names.<\/p>\n<p>When we win it&#8217;s with small things,<br \/>\nand the triumph itself makes us small.<br \/>\nWhat is extraordinary and eternal<br \/>\ndoes not want to be bent by us.<br \/>\nI mean the Angel who appeared<br \/>\nto the wrestlers of the Old Testament:<br \/>\nwhen the wrestler&#8217;s sinews<br \/>\ngrew long like metal strings,<br \/>\nhe felt them under his fingers<br \/>\nlike chords of deep music.<\/p>\n<p>Whoever was beaten by this Angel<br \/>\n(who often simply declined the fight)<br \/>\nwent away proud and strengthened<br \/>\nand great from that harsh hand,<br \/>\nthat kneaded him as if to change his shape.<br \/>\nWinning does not tempt that man.<br \/>\nThis is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,<br \/>\nby constantly greater beings.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdra.org.za\/creativity\/Rainer%20Maria%20Rilke%20-%20The%20Man%20Watching.htm\">http:\/\/www.cdra.org.za\/creativity\/Rainer%20Maria%20Rilke%20-%20The%20Man%20Watching.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Man Watching by Rainer Maria Rilke I can tell by the way the trees beat, after so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes that a storm is coming, and I hear the far-off fields say things I can&#8217;t bear without a friend, I can&#8217;t love without a sister The storm, the shifter of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[218],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahniwa.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}