Roman Fountain by Rainer Maria Rilke

translated by Len Krisak  (July 2014)

Borghese

Two basins, one above the other, from

within an ancient rounded marble rand.

And from the top one, waters softly come,

spilling to waters under them that stand

 

and wait and meet their whispers, playing dumb.

Hidden, as in the hollow of a hand,

they show them sky behind the green and gloom,

like some strange object from a foreign land.

 

Calmly, within their lovely basin-shell,

they widen—never homesick—ring by ring,

and only sometimes, ping by dream-soft ping,

 

drop down the mossy scrim in single file

to reach that final mirror softening

the basin with its stone-transforming smile.

 

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