Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'
hierarchies? And even if one of them pressed me
suddenly against his heart: I would be consumed
in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is
   nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just
   able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.
-Rainer Maria Rilke, from "The First Elegy" from Duino Elegies
translated by Stephen Mitchell