—Max Picard, The World of Silence, 1948, translated by Stanley Godman, 1952

Sometimes when a peasant moves with the plough and the
            oxen
Over the broad surface of the field,
It is as if the vault of the sky might take

Up into itself the peasant, the plough, and the oxen.
It is as though time had been sown into silence.
The eye of the gods falls on the figures and they

Increase. A bird flies slowly into the sky.
Its movements are trails that keep the silence enclosed.
Grain and stars shine through the mist and haze.

Animals lead silence through the world of man.
The cattle: the broad surface of their backs…
It is as if they were carrying silence.

Two cows in a field moving with a man beside them:
It is as if the man were poring down silence
From the backs of the animals on to the fields.