-I saw deep in the eyes of the animals the human soul look out upon me. I saw where it was born deep down under feathers and fur, or condemned to roam four-footed among the brambles I caught the clinging mute glance of the prisoner and swore that I would be faithful.~Thoreau -The wild cruel animal is not behind the bars of a cage. He is in front of it.~ Axel Munthe The Panther (1905) by Rainer Maria Rilke Translation: Robert Bly THE POEM 1. From seeing the bars, his seeing is so exhausted 2. that it no longer holds anything anymore. 3. To him the world is bars, a hundred thousand 4. bars, and behind the bars, nothing. 5. The lithe swinging of that rhythmical easy stride 6. which circles down to the tiniest hub 7. is like a dance of energy around a point 8. in which a great will stands stunned and numb. 9. Only at times the curtains of the pupil rise 10. without a sound . . . then a shape enters, 11. slips though the tightened silence of the shoulders, 12. reaches the heart, and dies