Rainer Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926 / Prague / Czech Republic)

Once in a great while you read something that bypasses the brain and goes straight to the heart. well narrated. Beautiful.

How many millions of us have visited to a zoo and seen that same scene of an animal behind bars, felt a little unease or even a trace of empathy but then did nothing. It takes a very special genius to see what millions of others have seen and say something that while the others sensed it, themselves did nothing.

A translation by Stephen Cohn:

The bars which pass and strike across hisgaze
have stunned his sight: the eyes have lost their hold.
To him it seems there are athousand bars,
a thousand bars, and nothing else. No World
And pacing out that mean, constricted ground,
so quiet, supple, powerful his stride
is like a ritual dance performed around
the centre where his baffled will survives.

The silent shutter of his eye sometimes
slides open to admit some thing outside;
an image runs through each expectant limb
and penetrates his heart and dies

Der Panther

Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe
So müd geworden, daß er nichts mehr hält.
Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäbe gäbe
und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt.

Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte,
Der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht,
Ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte,
In der betäubt ein großer Wille steht.

Nur manchmal schiebt der Vorhang der Pupille
Sich lautlos auf. - Dann geht ein Bild hinein,
geht durch der Glieder angespannte Stille -
Und hört im Herzen auf zu sein.

I prefer J.B. Leishman's translation:

THE PANTHER
His gaze those bars keep passing is so misted
with tiredness, it can take in nothing more.
He feels as though a thousand bars existed,
and no more world beyond them than before.

Those supply-powerful paddings, turning there
in tiniest of circles, well might be
the dance of forces round a center where
some mighty will stands paralytically.

Just now and then the pupil's noiseless shutter
is lifted. - Then an image will indart,
down through the limbs' intensive stillness flutter,
and end it's being in the heart.

This poem was used in the film 'Awakenings, ' (1990, Robert De Niro and Robin Williams) . It is the story of a man suffering from an illness which essentially traps him within his own body, without speech or movement. He thinks of himself as Rilke's Panther.

I wish the translator's name had appeared at the bottom. - Rochelle Cashdan

I love this poem. Only this and 'The Highwayman' are the only two written pieces that saddens me so, even after constant rereading.

I become so emotional whenever I read this poem. It is the most beautifully written poem I have ever read. It is wonderfully descriptive in a very unique way.