Nobody says it like Rilke.While there are several very good translations of this poem which was originally written in German this is my favourite:
Love-Song
How shall I hold my soul so it does not touch in yours?
How shall I lift it over you
to other things?
I'd gladly store it away
with some lost thing in the dark,
in some strange still place, that
does not tremble when your depths tremble.
But all that touches us, you and me,
takes us, together,like the stroke of a bow,
that draws one chord out of the two strings.
On what instrument are we strung?
And what artist has us in their hand?
Oh sweet song.
Love-Song
How shall I hold my soul so it does not touch in yours?
How shall I lift it over you
to other things?
I'd gladly store it away
with some lost thing in the dark,
in some strange still place, that
does not tremble when your depths tremble.
But all that touches us, you and me,
takes us, together,like the stroke of a bow,
that draws one chord out of the two strings.
On what instrument are we strung?
And what artist has us in their hand?
Oh sweet song.