World Was In The Face Of The Beloved

Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)



World was in the face of the beloved--,
but suddenly it poured out and was gone:
world is outside, world can not be grasped.

Why didn't I, from the full, beloved face
as I raised it to my lips, why didn't I drink
world, so near that I couldn't almost taste it?

Ah, I drank. Insatiably I drank.
But I was filled up also, with too much
world, and, drinking, I myself ran over.

Translated by Stephen Mitchell

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 01, 2023

24 sec read
445

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXX XXX XXX X
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 404
Words 80
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 1

Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke — better known as Rainer Maria Rilke — was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. more…

All Rainer Maria Rilke poems | Rainer Maria Rilke Books

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