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, seperate, in the evening... Translated by Stephen MitchellI rewatched the movie "Only You", with a young Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey, Jr., which I first saw in the theatre with my ex-husband before he was even my husband and my wonderful friend, Shawn. Anyway, this poem was in the movie, misquoted and misattributed, but I went in search of it. It's just so beautiful.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
"You, Who Never Arrived" by Rainier Maria Rilke
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment