Girl in Love
Rainer Maria Rilke
That’s my window. This minute
So gently did I alight
From sleep—was still floating in it.
Where has my life its limit
And where begins the night?
I could fancy all things around me
Were nothing but I as yet;
Like a crystal’s depth, profoundly
Mute, translucent, unlit.
I have space to spare inside me
For the stars, too: so full of room
Feels my heart; so lightly
Would it let go of him, whom
For all I know I have started
To love, it may be to hold.
Strange, as if never charted,
Stares my fortune untold.
Why is it I am bedded
Beneath this infinitude,
Fragrant like a meadow,
Hither and thither moved,
Calling out, yet fearing
Someone might hear the cry,
Destined to disappearing
Within another I.