it’s as if a glowing sky had overtaken you

When the snake charmer at the market square 

pipes upon the teasing gourd-flute, he soothes 

and sometimes lures a listener there, 

who from the din and tumult of the booths 

 

enters into the circle of the pipe, 

which insists and insists with its tune, 

till the reptile assumes a stiffer shape 

that the charming flatterer softens soon 

 

with swaying, blindly clinging derring-do 

that frightens and lengthens; and after this 

a mere glance suffices, and the Hindu 

infuses you with foreignness, 

 

in which you die. It’s as if a glowing sky 

had overtaken you. A fault runs through 

your broken face. Your Nordic memory 

fills with spices that are no help to you. 

 

There is no power that can cure you then, 

fever fells you, and the sun ferments, 

from baleful joy the pillars steepen, 

and poison glistens within the serpents. 

 

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