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cloversweed

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-I saw deep in the eyes of the animals the human soul look out upon me. I saw where it was born deep down under feathers and fur, or condemned to roam four-footed among the brambles I caught the clinging mute glance of the prisoner and swore that I would be faithful.~Thoreau
-The wild cruel animal is not behind the bars of a cage. He is in front of it.~ Axel Munthe

The Panther (1905) by Rainer Maria Rilke Translation: Robert Bly
THE POEM
1. From seeing the bars, his seeing is so exhausted
2. that it no longer holds anything anymore.
3. To him the world is bars, a hundred thousand
4. bars, and behind the bars, nothing.
5. The lithe swinging of that rhythmical easy stride
6. which circles down to the tiniest hub
7. is like a dance of energy around a point
8. in which a great will stands stunned and numb.
9. Only at times the curtains of the pupil rise
10. without a sound . . . then a shape enters,
11. slips though the tightened silence of the shoulders,
12. reaches the heart, and dies

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