As you should know by now, we’re smooth talkers and we indeed shave our faces, so let’s quote Rilke (translated by Gass) to bid farewell to summer 2012 together: Lord, it is time. The summer was too long. / Lay your shadow on the sundials now, / and through the meadow let the winds throng. // Ask the last fruits to ripen on the vine; / give them further two more summer days / to bring about perfection and to raise / the final sweetness in the heavy wine. // Whoever has no house now will establish none, / whoever lives alone now will live on long alone, / will waken, read, and write long letters, / wander up and down the barren paths / the parks expose when the leaves are blown.
