Explore "The Neighbour" by Rainer Maria Rilke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Strange violin! Dost thou follow me? / In many foreign cities, far away, / Thy lone voice spoke to me like memory. / Do hundreds play thee, or does but one play?
Are there in all great cities tempest-tossed / Men who would seek the rivers but for thee,
Who, but for thee, would be forever lost? / Why drifts thy lonely voice always to me? / Why am I the neighbour always / Of those who force to sing thy trembling strings? / Life is more heavy -- thy song says -- / Than the vast, heavy burden of all things.