she found, appearing there, within her at last, what once in a lover she expected to find

Let them suppose that what one contests there
is resolved in private sorrow afterward.
Nowhere but there exists such a theater;
pull back the tall curtain to see what entered

before the chorus of nights, commencing
its take on a broad, unending song,
as both lay there and the hour slipped along
that accuses itself and tears her clothing,

for that other's sake, for the sake of that hour
that struggles and writhes in the background;
for it could not suckle her of its own power.
But as she bowed to that strange hour she found,

appearing there, within her at last,
what once in a lover she expected to find,
so imminent and so greatly aligned,
and withdrawn as it would be in some beast.

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