"The Panther" (subtitled: "In Jardin des Plantes, Paris"; german: Der Panther: Im Jardin des Plantes, Paris) is a poem by

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

written between 1902 and 1903.Gedichtefreund.de
/ref> It describes a captured panther behind bars, as it was exhibited in the Ménagerie of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. It is one of Rilke's most famous poems and has been translated into English many times, including by many distinguished translators of Rilke, like Stephen Mitchell, C. F. MacIntyre, J. B. Leishman and Walter Arndt, Jessie Lamont and poets like

Robert Bly Robert Elwood Bly (December 23, 1926 – November 21, 2021) was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is '' Iron John: A Book About Men'' (1990), which spent 62 weeks on ' ...

. It is used in the film ''

Awakenings ''Awakenings'' is a 1990 American drama film directed by Penny Marshall. It is written by Steven Zaillian, who based his screenplay on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir ''Awakenings''. It tells the story of neurologist Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams ...

'' (1990) by the protagonist Leonard Lowe as a metaphor for his physical disability.

Content

The poem consists of three

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...

s (

strophe A strophe () is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. The term has been extended to also mean a structural division of a poem containing stanzas of varying ...

s), each containing four verses with alternating feminine and masculine cadence: German ''Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe'' ''so müd geworden, daß er nichts mehr hält.'' ''Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäbe gäbe'' ''und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt.'' ''Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte,'' ''der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht,'' ''ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte,'' ''in der betäubt ein großer Wille steht.'' ''Nur manchmal schiebt der Vorhang der Pupille'' ''sich lautlos auf –. Dann geht ein Bild hinein,'' ''geht durch der Glieder angespannte Stille –'' ''und hört im Herzen auf zu sein.'' English ''His gaze against the sweeping of the bars'' ''has grown so weary, it can hold no more.'' ''To him, there seem to be a thousand bars'' ''and back behind those thousand bars no world.'' ''The soft the supple step and sturdy pace,'' ''that in the smallest of all circles turns,'' ''moves like a dance of strength around a core'' ''in which a mighty will is standing stunned.'' ''Only at times the pupil’s curtain slides'' ''up soundlessly — . An image enters then,'' ''goes through the tensioned stillness of the limbs —'' ''and in the heart ceases to be.'' - English translation by Stanley Appelbaum English ''His vision, from the constantly passing bars,'' ''has grown so weary that it cannot hold'' ''anything else. It seems to him there are'' ''a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world.'' ''As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,'' ''the movement of his powerful soft strides'' ''is like a ritual dance around a center'' ''in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.'' ''Only at times, the curtain of the pupils'' ''lifts, quietly--. An image enters in,'' ''rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,'' ''plunges into the heart and is gone.'' - English translation by Stephen Mitchell English ''His gaze has, from the passing of the bars,'' ''grown so weary that it cannot hold.'' ''To him, there seem to be thousand bars'' ''and behind those thousand bars no world.'' ''The smooth pace, the strong and supple stride,'' ''that circles in the smallest space,'' ''is like a dance of force around a middle,'' ''in which a strong will’s paralysed.'' ''Only at times the pupil’s veil'' ''lifts without a sound –. An image enters,'' ''moving through the body's rigid hush-'' ''and in the heart ceases to be.'' - English translation by A.F.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Panther, The Poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke Austrian poems 1902 poems

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