| Margarete Münsterberg, ed., trans. A Harvest of German Verse. 1916. | | | | The Knight | | By Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) |
| | | THE KNIGHT rides forth in blackest mail, | |
| The rustling world to meet. | |
| Out there he finds all: the day and the dale | |
| And the friend and the foe and the castle’s pale, | |
| And fair May and fair maid and the woods and the grail, | 5 |
| And God Himself doth never fail | |
| To stand upon the street. | |
| But within the knightly armour yonder, | |
| Behind that gloomy wringing, | |
| Cowers death and has to ponder, ponder: | 10 |
| When will the blade come springing | |
| Over the iron wall, | |
| The stranger, freedom bringing, | |
| That from my hiding-place shall call | |
| Me forth, where I for many a day | 15 |
| Am waiting, crouched and clinging, | |
| That I may stretch out, once for all, | |
| With play | |
| And singing? | | | | |
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