The Song Of The Beggar
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
I am always going from door to door,
whether in rain or heat,
and sometimes I will lay my right ear in
the palm of my right hand.
And as I speak my voice seems strange as if
it were alien to me,
for I'm not certain whose voice is crying:
mine or someone else's.
I cry for a pittance to sustain me.
The poets cry for more.
In the end I conceal my entire face
and cover both my eyes;
there it lies in my hands with all its weight
and looks as if at rest,
so no one may think I had no place where-
upon to lay my head.
Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 16, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 404 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AXXXXB CXBA XXXXXX C |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 544 |
Words | 119 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 4, 6, 1 |
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