Lament (O how all things are far removed)

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



O how all things are far removed
and long have passed away.
I do believe the star,
whose light my face reflects,
is dead and has been so
for many thousand years.

I had a vision of a passing boat
and heard some voices saying disquieting things.
I heard a clock strike in some distant house...
but in which house?...

I long to quiet my anxious heart
and stand beneath the sky's immensity.
I long to pray...
And one of all the stars
must still exist.
I do believe that I would know
which one alone
endured,
and which like a white city stands
at the ray's end shining in the heavens.

Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

36 sec read
72

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXXCX XXDD XABXXCXXXX X
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 604
Words 119
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 4, 10, 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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