the annunciation

CARAVAGGIO
The Annunciation
1608-09
Oil on canvas, 285 x 205 cm
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nancy
Other works by the artist...

Not the angel entering frightened her
(take note of this). However little others
startled at the sunbeam or the moon at night
peering into their room, she was
filled with indignation
at the form in which the angel
came; she scarcely knew
that such a sojourn for angels required effort.
...
Not his entering, but that he,
an angel with a young man's face,
bent closely down to her; that his gaze
and her raised eyes collided
as if suddenly outside all were empty,
and what millions saw, did, carried,
cramped into the two of them: just she and he;
looking and looked at, eye and feast for the eyes
nowhere but here at this point: behold,
this frightens. And they were both frightened.

Then the angel sang his song.

~~Rainer Maria Rilke