"Thus It Was

I am being driven forward
Into an unknown land.
The pass grows steeper,
The air colder and sharper.
A wind from my unknown goal
Stirs the strings
Of expectation.

Still the question:
Shall I ever get there?
There, where life resounds,
A clear, pure note
In the silence.

*

Tomorrow we shall meet,
Death and I
And he shall thrust his sword
Into one who is wide awake"

* An Excerpt from 'Markings' by Dag Hammarskjöld (Published posthumously in 1963 in Swedish as Vägmärken.) This work he called "A sort of white book concerning my negotiations with myself -- and with God."