Rainer Maria Rilke · DE → EN
Source beside English. The full analysis of this poem lives on /poems/ — this page is for the bilingual reading.
The original DE text sits beside the English on Storgy Student. Compare line by line, see what the trot trades away.
The trot on the right is generated from the original by Sonnet 4.6 — Storgy Student unlocks the original alongside it so you can check the trot against the source.
Compare on Storgy Student →His weary glance, from passing by the bars, Has grown into a dazed and vacant stare; It seems to him there are a thousand bars And out beyond those bars the empty air. The pad of his strong feet, that ceaseless sound Of supple tread behind the iron bands, Is like a dance of strength circling around, While in the circle, stunned, a great will stands. But there are times the pupils of his eyes Dilate, the strong limbs stand alert, apart, Tense with the flood of visions that arise Only to sink and die within his heart.
English translation by Jessie Lemont (1918); public domain in the US (published before 1929).