Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke was one of the great German poets of the last century. I came to him early, when I was twenty-one. I did several versions of his poems for a Fine Arts class, from the original translations of J. B. Leishman. Leishman was named the official translator by Rilke's estate.

I've been carrying one of my versions with me for over thirty years. I love the poem, and I still find resonances in it. The poem is untitled in Leishman's translation, and I left my version untitled as well.


I saw the world in the face of a woman,
but that glimpse left in an instant.
I thought the world was outside me,
it couldn't be understood.

When I held the cup, why didn't I
drink from her full face
the world that was so near?

Oh, I did!
I drank and drank.
But I was so full of the world already
I overflowed.

(Copyright 1975, 2006, Allan Cooper)