Archaic Torso of Apollo
We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,
gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.
Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast’s fur:
would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.
.
Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875–1926
This poem is in the public domain
“Archaic Torso of Apollo” from Ahead of All Parting
English translation © 1995 by Stephen Mitchell
Statue of Apollo in Stockholm, Sweden
Photo by Dom Fou on Unsplash
