Encounter In The Chestnut Avenue by Rainer Maria Rilke
Encounter In The Chestnut Avenue by Rainer Maria Rilke He felt the entrance’s green darkness wrapped cooly round him like a silken cloak that he was still accepting and arranging; when at the opposite transparent end, far off, through green sunlight, as through green window panes, whitely a solitary shape flared up, long remaining distant […]
Duino Elegies: The Tenth Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke
Duino Elegies: The Tenth Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke That some day, emerging at last from the terrifying vision I may burst into jubilant praise to assenting angels! That of the clear-struck keys of the heart not one may fail to sound because of a loose, doubtful or broken string! That my streaming countenance may […]
Duino Elegies: The Fourth Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke
Duino Elegies: The Fourth Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke O trees of life, oh, what when winter comes? We are not of one mind. Are not like birds in unison migrating. And overtaken, overdue, we thrust ourselves into the wind and fall to earth into indifferent ponds. Blossoming and withering we comprehend as one. And […]
Eve by Rainer Maria Rilke
Eve by Rainer Maria Rilke Look how she stands, high on the steep facade of the cathedral, near the window-rose, simply, holding in her hand the apple, judged for all time as the guiltless-guilty for the growing fruit her body held which she gave birth to after parting from the circle of eternities. She left […]
Dedication To M… by Rainer Maria Rilke
Dedication To M… by Rainer Maria Rilke Swing of the heart. O firmly hung, fastened on what invisible branch. Who, who gave you the push, that you swung with me into the leaves? How near I was to the exquisite fruits. But not-staying is the essence of this motion. Only the nearness, only toward the […]
Early Spring by Rainer Maria Rilke
Early Spring by Rainer Maria Rilke Harshness vanished. A sudden softness has replaced the meadows’ wintry grey. Little rivulets of water changed their singing accents. Tendernesses, hesitantly, reach toward the earth from space, and country lanes are showing these unexpected subtle risings that find expression in the empty trees. ————— The End And that’s the […]
Exposed On The Cliffs Of The Heart by Rainer Maria Rilke
Exposed On The Cliffs Of The Heart by Rainer Maria Rilke Exposed on the cliffs of the heart. Look, how tiny down there, look: the last village of words and, higher, (but how tiny) still one last farmhouse of feeling. Can you see it? Exposed on the cliffs of the heart. Stoneground under your hands. […]
Extinguish Thou My Eyes by Rainer Maria Rilke
Extinguish Thou My Eyes by Rainer Maria Rilke Extinguish Thou my eyes:I still can see Thee, deprive my ears of sound:I still can hear Thee, and without feet I still can come to Thee, and without voice I still can call to Thee. Sever my arms from me, I still will hold Thee with all […]
Dedication by Rainer Maria Rilke
Dedication by Rainer Maria Rilke I have great faith in all things not yet spoken. I want my deepest pious feelings freed. What no one yet has dared to risk and warrant will be for me a challenge I must meet. If this presumptious seems, God, may I be forgiven. For what I want to […]
Child In Red by Rainer Maria Rilke
Child In Red by Rainer Maria Rilke Sometimes she walks through the village in her little red dress all absorbed in restraining herself, and yet, despite herself, she seems to move according to the rhythm of her life to come. She runs a bit, hesitates, stops, half-turns around… and, all while dreaming, shakes her head […]