Lady At A Mirror
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)
As in sleeping-drink spices
softly she loosens in the liquid-clear
mirror her fatigued demeanor;
and she puts her smile deep inside.
And she waits while the liquid
rises from it; then she pours her hair
into the mirror, and, lifting one
wondrous shoulder from the evening gown,
she drinks quietly from her image. She drinks
what a lover would drink feeling dazed,
searching it, full of mistrust; and she only
beckons to her maid when at the bottom
of her mirror she finds candles, wardrobes,
and the cloudy dregs of a late hour.
Translated by Edward Snow
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 16, 2023
- 29 sec read
- 165 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXAX XXXX XXX XXA X |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 548 |
Words | 99 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3, 1 |
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