Among so many people cozy in their homes,
I am like a man who explores far-off oceans.
Days with full stomachs stand on their tables;
I see a distant land full of images.
I sense another world close to me,
perhaps no more lived in than the moon;
they, however, never let a feeling alone,
and all the words they use are so worn.
The living things I brought back with me
hardly peep out, compared with all they own.
In their native country they were wild;
here they hold their breath from shame.
Rainer Maria Rilke
from Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke Robert Bly translator, editor
I don't know if there is a better description of the artist's place in society. Solitary.
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