liturgy of the season (7)

a weekly translation of Rudolf Steiner’s Seelenkalender verse

In 1912-1913, Rudolf Steiner created a sort of liturgy of the natural and spiritual year in the form of fifty-two short verses. Experience—my own and others—testifies to the powerful effect that a short meditation on the relevant verse throughout the course of the year can have in respect to awakening and sensitizing the soul to each season’s unique quality and gesture.

Below is Dr. Steiner’s original Seelenkalender, or “Calendar of the Soul” verse for this week followed by my translation into English. I have opted to follow, whenever a conflict arose, the spirit over the letter in my translation efforts, attempting to convey the “mood” before the propositional content.

SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR

Mein Selbst, es drohet zu entfliehen, 
Vom Weltenlichte mächtig angezogen. 
Nun trete du mein Ahnen 
In deine Rechte kräftig ein, 
Ersetze mir des Denkens Macht, 
Das in der Sinne Schein 
Sich selbst verlieren will. 

∇∆ 

MY self-bound soul is yearning to take flight, 
in Light that makes the world to rise and swell:
I call thee, therefore, angel, stand thou forth!
my airy thought imbue 
with resolution true,
sustain me through these swells of ecstasy
which would swallow me in the senses’ tapestry