Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (1918)/The Tomb of a Young Girl

by Rainer Maria Rilke

TOMB OF A YOUNG GIRL

 

We still remember! The same as of yore
All that has happened once again must be.
As grows a lemon-tree upon the shore—
It was like that—your light, small breasts you bore,
And his blood's current coursed like the wild sea.

 

That god—
who was the wanderer, the slim
Despoiler of fair women; he—the wise,—
But sweet and glowing as your thought of him
Who cast a shadow over your young limb
While bending like your arched brows o'er your eyes.