Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Margarete Münsterberg, ed., trans. A Harvest of German Verse. 1916.

By Remembrance

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926)

YOU wait, with memories drifting,

For the something that made life blessed,

The mighty, the rare, the uplifting,

The awaking of stones, the rifting

That opened deeps unguessed.

The books in your shelves are staring

Golden and brown, as you muse

On the lands you crossed in your faring,

On pictures, on visions unsparing

Of women you had to lose.

All at once it comes back: now you know!

Trembling you rise, all aware

Of a year once long ago

With its grandeur and fear and prayer.