You Who Never Arrived
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
You who never arrived
in my arms, Beloved, who were lost
from the start,
I don't even know what songs
would please you. I have given up trying
to recognize you in the surging wave of
the next moment. All the immense
images in me -- the far-off, deeply-felt
landscape, cities, towers, and bridges, and
unsuspected turns in the path,
and those powerful lands that were once
pulsing with the life of the gods--
all rise within me to mean
you, who forever elude me.
You, Beloved, who are all
the gardens I have ever gazed at,
longing. An open window
in a country house-- , and you almost
stepped out, pensive, to meet me.
Streets that I chanced upon,--
you had just walked down them and vanished.
And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors
were still dizzy with your presence and,
startled, gave back my too-sudden image.
Who knows? Perhaps the same
bird echoed through both of us
yesterday, separate, in the evening...
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 220 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXXXAXXXBXXXXC XXXXCXXXBXXXA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 916 |
Words | 166 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 13 |
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