Mein Weg was written for organ in 1989. In 1994 Arvo Pärt created a version for 14 strings and percussion. The title was inspired by a short poem from Livre des Questions, the magnum opus of the poet Edmond Jabès, who was born in Cairo and emigrated to France in 1957.

It reads:
My path has long hours, / jolts and pains. / My path has peaks and sea-troughs, / sand and sky. / Mine or thine.

The image of life's portentous sea-troughs seems to have found an echo in the work's...