parabola-magazine: The Unicorn SonnetO dieses ist das Tier das...

parabola-magazine:

The Unicorn Sonnet



O dieses ist das Tier das es nicht gibt



This is the animal that doesn’t exist.

But they didn’t know it and dared nonetheless

to love its transformations, its bearing, its gait

so much that in the tranquil gaze of light, it lived.



Really it never was. Out of their love they made it,

this pure creature. They always saved a space.

And in that place, empty and set aside,

it lightly raised its head and scarcely



needed to be. They fed it no corn,

only the possibility that it might exist –

which gave the beast such strength, it bore



a horn upon his forehead. Just one horn.

It came to a virgin, all white,

and was in the silver mirror and in her.



—Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus II, 4

Image: A Mon Seul Désir by an unknown French weaver c. 1410

via Tumblr http://sirnot.tumblr.com/post/50352581673