Classic Poem

I close my eyes, the world recedes,
and only the weight of gentleness ascertains me without end. . . .

The silence becomes a quiet night
and turns round us like a promise;
it is now not something that separates
but rather a gentle distance that encloses us;
because of that we suddenly become something like one person. . . .

We explore each other
in a manner more certain than talking, seeing,
and we find us
when we have lost sight of ourselves—

What did I want to ascertain?
Gentleness that has returned from the distance,
in the silence that has lost words, that has been cleansed
you are now only breathing. . . .

You now are life itself. . . .
but even these words will be punished
when soon gentleness fills the world
and I fall in it to live.