LEFÈVRE, Robert
Pauline as Daphne Fleeing from Apollo
c. 1810
Oil on canvas, 119 x 105 cm
Private collection

He who pours himself out like a stream is acknowledged at last by Knowledge;

and she leads him enchanted through the harmonious country

that finishes often with starting, and with ending begins.

Every fortunate space that the two of them pass through, astonished

is a child or grandchild of parting. And the transfigured Daphne,

as she feels herself become laurel, wants you to change into wind.

— Rilke/Trans. Mitchell