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“Offering” by Rainer Maria Rilke 🇦🇹 (4 Dec 187529 Dec 1926)
Translated from the German by Jessie Lemont
My body glows in every vein and blooms
To fullest flower since I first knew thee
My walk unconscious pride and power assumes;
Who art thou then—thou who awaitest me?
When from the past I draw myself the while
I lose old traits as leaves of autumn fall;
I only know the radiance of thy smile
Like the soft gleam of stars transforming all.
Through childhood’s years I wandered unaware
Of shimmering visions my thoughts now arrests
To offer thee as on an altar fair
That’s lighted by the bright flame of thy hair
And wreathéd by the blossoms of thy breasts.