avoids and loves

How far it is between the stars, and how much farther
is what's right here. The distance, for example,
between a child and one who walks by--
oh, how inconceivably far.

Not only in measurable spans does Fate
move through our lives.
Think how great the distance between a young girl
and the boy she avoids and loves.

Everything is far, nowhere does the circle close.
See, on a plate upon the festive table
how strangely the fish is staring.

Fish are mute, we used to think. Who knows?
We may, in the end, find that their silence
says more to use than our words.

[Rainer Maria Rilke, 'Part Two, XX' {Zweiter Teil, XX}, from In Praise of Morality]