Page:Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (1918).djvu/63

 MAIDENS.II

Maidens the poets learn from you to tell

How solitary and remote you are,

As night is lighted by one high bright star

They draw light from the distance where you dwell.

For poet you must always maiden be

Even though his eyes the woman in you wake

Wedding brocade your fragile wrists would break,

Mysterious, elusive, from him flee.

Within his garden let him wait alone

Where benches stand expectant in the shade

Within the chamber where the lyre was played

Where he received you as the eternal One.

Go! It grows dark—your voice and form no more

His senses seek; he now no longer sees

A white robe fluttering under dark beech trees

Along the pathway where it gleamed before.

He loves the long paths where no footfalls ring,

And he loves much the silent chamber where

Like a soft whisper through the quiet air

He hears your voice, far distant, vanishing.

19