“Madness” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Paula Modersohn-Becker. Rainer Maria Rilke, 1906
Paula Modersohn-Becker. Rainer Maria Rilke, 1906 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
MADNESS


    She thinks: I am--Have you not seen?
    Who are you then, Marie?
    I am a Queen, I am a Queen!
    To your knee, to your knee!

    And then she weeps: I was--a child--
    Who were you then, Marie?
    Know you that I was no man's child,
    Poor and in rags--said she.

    And then a Princess I became
    To whom men bend their knees;
    To princes things are not the same
    As those a beggar sees.

    And those things which have made you great
    Came to you, tell me, when?
    One night, one night, one night quite late,
    Things became different then.

    I walked the lane which presently
    With strung chords seemed to bend;
    Then Marie became Melody
    And danced from end to end.

    The people watched with startled mien
    And passed with frightened glance
    For all know that only a Queen
    May dance in the lanes: dance!...