Rainer Maria Rilke Panther

August 18, 2022
One of my favorite poems is “

Musicians during the Jardin des Plantes

The Panther (subtitled: In Jardin des Plantes, Paris) is a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke written on 6 November 1902. It defines a captured panther behind pubs, since it was displayed inside Jardin des Plantes in Paris. It really is among Rilke's most well-known poems and it has been converted into English many times, including by many people distinguished translators of Rilke, like Stephen Mitchell, C. F. MacIntyre, J. B. Leishman and Walter Arndt, and poets like Robert Bly

Content[edit]

The poem comprises of three stanzas (strophes), each containing four passages with alternating feminine and masculine cadence:

German

Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe
so müd geworden, daß er nichts mehr hält.
Ihm ist und bleibt, 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.

English

Their look against the sweeping of bars
is continuing to grow therefore weary, it can hold no more.
To him, truth be told there be seemingly one thousand taverns
and straight back behind those thousand bars no globe.

The soft the supple step and sturdy speed,
that inside tiniest of sectors converts,
moves like a dance of power around a core
where a mighty will is standing stunned.

Only from time to time the pupil’s curtain slides
up soundlessly — . A graphic gets in after that,
undergoes the tensioned stillness of limbs —
as well as in the center ceases become.

- English interpretation by Stanley Appelbaum

Their sight, from constantly passing pubs,
is continuing to grow so weary so it cannot hold
anything else. It seems to him you can find
a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no globe.

As he paces in cramped groups, over and over repeatedly,
the activity of their effective smooth advances
is a lot like a ritual party around a center
in which a great will appears paralyzed.

Only from time to time, the curtain of the pupils
lifts, quietly-. A picture goes into in,
rushes down through tensed, arrested muscle tissue,
plunges in to the heart and it is gone.

- English interpretation by Stephen Mitchell

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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