I could even contain the stars within me

That is my window beckoning.
Waking now in such gentle light,
I supposed I might be floating.
Toward what is my life reaching,
and where begins the night?

I might suppose that all
of it still surrounded me,
clear as the depths of a crystal,
unspeaking and shadowy.

I feel I could even contain
the stars within me, so mighty
does my heart seem, once again
it has willingly set him free

whom perhaps I began to love,
perhaps began to embrace.
Strangely, a thing never dreamed of,
my fate stares into my face.

Why am I laid out below
such endless repetition,
fragrant as a sweet meadow,
yet wind-shifted hither and yon,

calling out, yet ever in fear
that someone might hear my call,
destined to find in another
lover yet another downfall.

[Rainer Maria Rilke {1875-1926}, 'The Woman in Love', from Rilke: New Poems {trans. from the German by Joseph Cadora]