A review by briancrandall
Duino Elegies: A Bilingual Edition by Rainer Maria Rilke

5.0

And she leads him gently through the wide landscape
Of the laments and shows to him the temple
Pillars or the ruins of that fortress,
From which the chieftains of the sorrow race
Once ruled the country.
She shows him the tall tear-trees and the fields
Where the flowers of sadness blow (the living only
Know them as softest leavage). She points out
The animals of mourning, as they browse;
And often a bird, in sudden fright, flies straight Across their upward vision, drawing far
The image of its isolated cry.
As evening approaches
She takes him to the cromlechs of the ancients
Of the sorrow race — the sibyls and the prophets.
Then night comes on; they go more silently,
And soon the tombstone climbs up like a moon,
To watch o'er all. Brother to him of the Nile,
This awful sphinx — a face on the silent room.
And they are amazed at the crownworthy head, Which, soundlessly, once and for all, has laid
The face of man on the balance of the stars. [98–9]