Only the man who has raised his strings
among the dark ghosts also
can sense it and give
the everlasting praise.
Only he who has eaten poppy
with the dead, from their poppy,
will never lose even
his most delicate sound.
Even though images in the pool
seem so blurry:
grasp the main thing.
Only in the double kingdom, there
alone, do voices become
undying and tender.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
translation by Robert Bly
from Sonnets to Orpheus
art by alex orlov
