In the street
the piper pipes a music
slow and wan:
the low heart lower goes
for many years of war
it has gone now;
the body only wants to
slow and in fatigued rest
dream and sleep and sleep and
dream where silence be the best.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Rilke at the end of his life wrote a poem like this comparing to falling into a deep sleep, Yeats read a translation of it. He was already in his 70s but he couldn't wrap his mind around Rilke's quietism. He wrote: Bid imagination run Much on the Great Questioner; What he can question, what if questioned I Can with fitting confidence reply. The Great Questioner is clearly a god-figure but he is not omnipotent or omniscient. Yeats seems confident he can out-talk him (?) , persuade him to grant a respite (?) , to listen but not act (?) .