Going Blind

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She sat just like the others at the table.

But on second glance, she seemed to hold her cup

a little differently as she picked it up.

She smiled once.  It was almost painful.

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And when they finished and it was time to stand

and slowly, as chance selected them, they left 

and moved through many rooms (they talked and laughed),

I saw her.  She was moving far behind

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the others, absorbed, like someone who will soon 

have to sing before a large assembly; 

upon her eyes, which were radiant with joy,

light played as on the surface of a pool.

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She followed slowly, taking a long time,

as though there were some obstacle in the way;

and yet: as though, once it was overcome,

she would be beyond all walking, and would fly.

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~  Rainer Maria Rilke

from New Poems

translated by Stephen Mitchell

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