People At Night by Rainer Maria Rilke

To join this community on Patreon, click here:⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠People at NightBy Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) The Nights were not made for crowds, and they severYou from your neighbour, and you shall neverSeek him, defiantly, at night.But if you make your dark house light,To look on strangers in your room,You must reflect—on whom. False lights that on men’s faces playDistort them gruesomely.You look upon a disarray,A world that seems to reel and sway,A waving, glittering sea. On foreheads gleams a yellow shine,Where thoughts are chased away,Their glances flicker mad from wine,And to the words they sayStrange heavy gestures make replyThat struggle in the buzzing room;And they say always “I” and “I,”And mean—they know not whom.This episode was directed by Caitlyn Oenbrink