Song
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
(From the diaries of Malte Laurids Brigge)
You, whom I do not tell that all night long
I lie weeping,
whose very being makes me feel wanting
like a cradle.
You, who do not tell me, that you lie awake
thinking of me:--
what, if we carried all these longings within us
without ever being overwhelmed by them,
letting them pass?
Look at these lovers, tormented by love,
when first they begin confessing,
how soon they lie!
You make me feel alone. I try imagining:
one moment it is you, then it's the soaring wind;
a fragrance comes and goes but never lasts.
Oh, within my arms I lost all whom I loved!
Only you remain, always reborn again.
For since I never held you, I hold you fast.
Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 171 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | A AAAX AXXXX XAX AXXXXX A |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 707 |
Words | 137 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 5, 3, 6, 1 |
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"Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29711/song>.
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