Poet Lore/Volume 27/Number 1/Glimpse of a Childhood

For other English-language translations of this work, see Glimpse of a Childhood.
Poet Lore, vol. 27, New Year's number (1916)
Glimpse of a Childhood
by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Margarete Münsterberg
3074817Poet Lore, vol. 27, New Year's number — Glimpse of a Childhood1916Rainer Maria Rilke

GLIMPSE OF A CHILDHOOD

By Rainer Maria Rilke

Translated from the German by Margarete Münsterberg

The darkness in the room is pregnant, seeming
To fold about the boy who hides himself;
And when his mother enters, as if dreaming,
A glass is trembling on the quiet shelf.
She feels that now her entrance is betrayed,
And kisses her small boy: "Oh, you are there!". . .
They glance at the piano where she played
On many evenings the beloved air
That strangely on the child its magic laid.

He sits quite still. With wondering eyes he sees
Her hand weighed down beneath the ring and slow,
As if it walked against a gale in snow,
Move on the snow-white keys.

 This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.

Original:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1926, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 97 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

Translation:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1957, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 66 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse