Inspired by the poem 'Der Leser' (The Reader) by Rainer Maria Rilke which I include here both in English translation and the original written in the summer of 1908 in Paris!


The Reader

Who knows him, this one, who sank his face
away out of its being into another,
that only the quick turning of full pages
sometimes violently interrupts?

Even his own mother would not be sure
if it is him, who reads there, that which is
drenched by his shadow. And we, who had hours,
- what do we know, how much of him faded away, till

he looked up with effort, taking on everything
which happened in the book below
with eyes, that, instead of taking, give,
while pressing against the complete world:
like quiet children, who have played alone,
suddenly experience that which is at hand;
and yet his features, ordered as they were,
remained forever rearranged.

_{(trans. =rad-ix )}


Der Leser (original )

Wer kennt ihn, diesen, welcher sein Gesicht
wegsenkte aus dem Sein zu einem zweiten,
das nur das schnelle Wenden voller Seiten
manchmal gewaltsam unterbricht?

Selbst seine Mutter wäre nicht gewiss,
ob er es ist, der da mit seinem Schatten
Getränktes liest. Und wir, die Stunden hatten,
was wissen wir, wieviel ihm hinschwand, bis

er mühsam aufsah: alles auf sich hebend,
was unten in dem Buche sich verhielt,
mit Augen, welche, statt zu nehmen, gebend
anstießen an die fertig-volle Welt:
wie stille Kinder, die allein gespielt,
auf einmal das Vorhandene erfahren;
doch seine Züge, die geordnet waren,
blieben für immer umgestellt.

aus: Der neuen Gedichte anderer Teil