Friday, June 14, 2013

The Carousel by Rainer Maria Rilke

For a little while in a roof's shade,
Brightly painted horses turn in a band.
They have all been taken from a land
That hesitates before it fades.
A pinching harness keeps them bound,
But all have courage in their eyes,
A crimson lion terrifies,
And now the china elephant comes 'round.

Just as in the woods there's a buck,
Except that it's saddled and carries
A little blue girl all buckled up.

And on the lion rides in white a young
Boy and holds on with a small warm hand
As the animal shows his teeth and tongue.

And now the china elephant comes 'round.

Bright young ladies are also there,
Almost too old for these wooden mounds,
In the middle of the leaps and bounds,
They look up, around, at us, anywhere.

And now the china elephant comes 'round.

And so it goes--faster, hastening its end,
It circles and it turns and has no aim,
A red, a green, a grey sent around,
A small inchoate outline of a face,
And sometimes we see a smile triumphant
And bless'd that sparkles and is spent
On this blind and breathless game...