Duration of Childhood
(For E.M.)
Long afternoons of childhood...., not yet really
life; still only growing-time
that drags at the knees--, time of defenceless waiting.
And between what we will perhaps become
and this edgeless existence--: deaths,
uncountable. Love, the possessive, surrounds
the child forever betrayed in secret
and promises him to the future; which is not his own.
Afternoons that he spent by himself, staring
from mirror to mirror; puzzling himself with the riddle
of his own name: Who? Who?-- But the others
come home again, overwhelm him.
What the window or path
or the mouldy smell of a drawer
confided to him yesterday: they drown it out and destroy it.
Once more he belongs to them.
As tendrils sometimes fling themselves out from the thicker
bushes, his desire will fling itself out
from the tangle of family and hang there, swaying in the light.
But daily they blunt his glance upon their inhabited
walls -- that wide innocent glance which lets dogs in
and holds the tall flowers,
still almost face to face.
Oh how far it is
from this watched-over creature to everything that will someday
be his wonder or his destruction.
His immature strength
learns cunning among the traps.
But the constellation
of his future love has long
been moving among the stars. What terror
will tear his heart out of the track of its fleeing
to place it in perfect submission, under the calm
influence of the heavens?
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Dauer der Kindheit
(FÜR E.M.)
Lange Nachmittage der Kindheit....., immer noch nicht
Leben; immer noch Wachstum,
das in den Knien zieht -, wehrlose Wartezeit.
Und zwischen dem, was man sein wird, vielleicht,
und diesem randlosen Dasein -: Tode,
unzählige. Liebe umkreist, die besitzende,
das immer heimlich verratene Kind
und verspricht es der Zukunft; nicht seiner.
Nachmittage, da es allein blieb, von einem Spiegel zum andern
starrend; anfragend beim Rätsel des eigenen
Namens: Wer? Wer? - Aber die Andern
kehren nachhause und überwältigens.
Was ihm das Fenster, was ihm der Weg,
was ihm der dumpfe Geruch einer Lade
gestern vertraut hat: sie übertönens, vereitelns.
Wieder wird es ein Ihriges.
Ranken werfen sich so manchmal aus dichteren
Büschen heraus, wie sich sein Wunsch auswirft
aus dem Gewirr der Familie, schwankend im Klarheit.
Aber sie stumpfen ihm täglich den Blick an ihren gewohnteren
Wänden, jenen, den Aufblick, der den Hunden begegnet
und höhere Blumen
immer noch fast gegenüber hat.
Oh wie weit ist es von diesem
überwachten Geschöpf zu allem, was einmal
sein Wunder sein wird, oder sein Untergang.
Seine unmündige
Kraft lernt List zwischen den Fallen.
Und das Gestirn seiner künftigen Liebe
geht doch schon längst unter den Sternen,
gültig. Welches Erschrecken
wird ihm das Herz einmal reißen dorthin,
daß es abkommt vom Weg seiner Flucht
und gerät in Gehorsam und heiteren Einfluß?
Aus: Die Gedichte 1922 bis 1926
Portrait of my Father as a Young Man
In the eyes: dream. The brow as if it could feel
something far off. Around the lips, a great
freshness--seductive, though there is no smile.
Under the rows of ornamental braid
on the slim Imperial officer's uniform:
the sabre's basket-hilt. Both hands stay
folded upon it, going nowhere, calm
and now almost invisible, as if they
were the first to grasp the distance and dissolve.
And all the rest so curtained within itself,
so cloudy, that I cannot understand
this figure as it fades into the background--.
Oh quickly disappearing photograph
in my more slowly disappearing hand.
Jugend-Bildnis meines Vaters
Im Auge Traum. Die Stirn wie in Ber¨hrung
mit etwas Fernem. Um den Mund enorm
viel Jugend, ungelächelte Verf¨hrung,
und vor der vollen schm¨ckenden Verschn¨rung
der schlanken adeligen Uniform
der Säbelkorb und beide Hände -, die
abwarten, ruhig, zu nichts hingedrängt.
Und nun fast nicht mehr sichtbar: als ob sie
zuerst, die Fernes greifenden, verschwänden.
Und alles andre mit sich selbst verhängt
und ausgel¨scht als ob wirs nicht verständen
und tief aus seiner eignen Tiefe tr¨b -.
Du schnell vergehendes Daguerreotyp
in meinen langsamer vergehenden Händen.
Aus: Neue Gedichte (1907)
Der Panther
Im Jardin des Plantes, Paris
Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe
so müd geworden, dass er nichts mehr hält.
Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäbe gäbe
und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt.
Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte,
der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht,
ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte,
in der betäubt ein großer Wille steht.
Nur manchmal schiebt der Vorhang der Pupille
sich lautlos auf -. Dann geht ein Bild hinein,
geht durch der Glieder angespannte Stille und hört im Herzen auf zu sein.
Rainer Maria Rilke, 6.11.1902, Paris
Here are five historically important
English translations of this poem. Three are
rhymed; two are not...
The Panther
In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris
His gaze those bars keep passing is so misted
with tiredness, it can take in nothing more.
He feels as though a thousand bars existed,
and no more world beyond them before.
Those supply-powerful paddings, turning there
in the tiniest of circles, well might be
the dance of forces round a centre where
some mighty will stands paralytically.
Just now and then the pupil's noiseless shutter
is lifted.— Then an image will indart,
down through the limbs' intensive stillness flutter,
and end its being in the heart.
J. B. Leishman
The Panther
In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris
His sight from ever gazing through the bars
has grown so blunt that it sees nothing more.
It seerms to him that thousand of bars are
before him, and behind him nothing merely.
The easy motion of his supple stride,
which turns about the very smallest circle,
is like a dance of strength about a center
in which a will stands stupefied.
Only sometimes when the pupil's film
soundlessly opens . . . then one image fills
and glides through the quiet tension of the limbs
into the heart and ceases and is still.
C. F. MacIntyre
The Panther
In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris
His gaze has been so worn by the procession
Of bars that it no longer makes a bond.
Around, a thousand bars seem to be flashing,
And in their flashing show no world beyond.
The lissom steps which round out and re-enter
That tightest circuit of their turning drill
Are like a dance of strength about a centre
Wherein there stands benumbed a mighty will.
Only from time to time the pupil's shutter
Will draw apart: an image enters then,
To travel through the tautened body's utter
Stillness—and in the heart end.
Walter Arndt
The Panther
In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris
From seeing the bars, his seeing is so exhausted
that it no longer holds anything anymore.
To him the world is bars, a hundred thousand
bars, and behind the bars, nothing.
The lithe swinging of that rhythmical easy stride
which circles down to the tiniest hub
is like a dance of energy around a point
in which a great will stands stunned and numb.
Only at times the curtains of the pupil rise
without a sound . . . then a shape enters,
slips through the tightened silence of the shoulders,
reaches the heart, and dies.
Robert Bly
The Panther
In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris
His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold
anything else. It seems to him there are
a thousand bars, and behind the bars, no world.
As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a centre
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.
Only at times, the curtain of the pupils
lifts, quietly—. An image enters in,
rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
plunges into the heart and is gone.
Stephen Mitchell
The Panther
In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris
His gaze is from the passing of bars
so exhausted, that it doesn't hold a thing anymore.
For him, it's as if there were thousands of bars
and behind the thousands of bars no world.
The sure stride of lithe, powerful steps,
that around the smallest of circles turns,
is like a dance of pure energy about a centre,
in which a great will stands numbed.
Only occasionally, without a sound, do the covers
of the eyes slide open—. An image rushes in,
goes through the tensed silence of the frame—
only to vanish, forever, in the heart.
(tr. Cliff Crego)
Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke was a famous Austrian poet known for his significant contribution in German
literature. He was famous for the "Thing poems", which transformed him from a traditional poet
to a modernist. He had frequently and very often used Greek Mythology figures in his works.
Angels, roses and the character of the poet were also repeatedly employed in his poems. Rilke
also used metaphors, metonymy and contradictions in his writings. He was one of the most
famous German poets among English readers with his best known works like "Duino Elegies",
which was a highly lyrical prose. His other famous prose works include "Letters to a Young
Poet" and the semi-autobiographical "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge". He had also
written more than 400 poems in French which showed his excellence in other language, apart
from English.
Rainer Maria Rilke Childhood & Early Life
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke was born on December 4, 1875, in Prague, which
was a part of Austria-Hungary at that time. His father, Josef Rilke worked as a Railway official,
after serving in military, while his mother Sophie Entz was the daughter of a well-reputed bank
official. His mother had a serious impact on Rilke’s childhood life. Sophie used to call him
Sophia and dressed him like a girl until he was five. This was primarily done to compensate for
the earlier loss of a baby girl. Rilke later blamed his mother for his bad childhood, but one thing
which Sophie did good for him was influenced young Rilke towards reading and writing poetry.
His father always had an inclination towards military. As such, he used to give his son, soldier
toys and dumbbells for exercise. His parent’s marriage fell apart in 1884 when Rilke was only
nine. Even though Rilke was artistically and poetically talented, his parents forced him to attend
the military academy of St. Pölten and Mahrisch-Weisskirchenn. He stayed there for five years
from 1886 until 1891, when his illness made him to leave the academy. He was tutored for three
years for his university entrance examinations and finally cleared the university entrance exam in
1895. For the next two years, Rilke extensively studied literature, art history and philosophy in
Prague and Munich.
While his stay in Munich in 1897, Rilke met Lou Andreas-Salomé, a famous Russian woman
known for her intellectuality and long list of associations with western luminaries like Nietzsche,
Wagner and Freud. She was fifteen years elder to Rilke but this didn’t matter, for the two soon
fell in love with each other. Lou Andreas-Salomé had significant influence on Rilke. She taught
him Russian and later introduced him to the patrons and other people in the art. She remained his
advisor, confidante and muse throughout his life. After making a several-weeks long trip to Italy
in 1898, Rilke, along with Lou and her husband, Friedrich Andreas, traveled to Moscow in 1899.
There he met Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian novelist. In his second journey to Moscow in
August 1900, Rilke met the family of Boris Pasternak and Spiridon Drozhzhin, a peasant poet.
The following autumn of 1900, he stayed at the artists' colony at Worpswede where he met the
sculptor Clara Westhoff whom he later married in the spring. But Rilke was not built to live a
normal middle class life; he left for Paris in the summer of 1902 leaving his wife and daughter
behind.
Later Life
When Rilke visited Paris in 1902, he first encountered various problems which he mentioned in
his only novel, “The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge”. This period also marked his encounter
with modernism. During this period, Rilke came under the influence of the sculptor Auguste
Rodin. Rodin told him the significance of objective observation which later transformed Rilke’s
poetic style from the subjective into something new in European literature. The resulted “New
Poems” had the elements of “thing elements” and also showed Rilke’s newly acquired artistic
vision. His next work, “New Poems: The Other Part”, was shaped in the same “Things poems”
mould. The period between October 1911 to May 1912, Rilke stayed in the Castle Duino, near
Trieste which was the home of Countess Marie of Thurn und Taxis. He started writing his
famous poem cycle, “Duino Elegies” in 1912, which he could finish only in 1922. Rilke later
blamed it to the creativity crisis during that period. In 1914, the World War I broke out during
his stay in Germany and he couldn’t go to Paris. Rilke spent the major part of the war in Munich
only, while his property in Paris was seized and auctioned. From the time period 1914 to 1916,
he shared a disruptive relationship with the painter Lou Albert-Lasard. After receiving a basic
training in Vienna, Rilke joined the military and was transferred to War Records Office. He was
discharged from military in June 1916 and spent the rest of war days in Munich. His brief
military service had a stronger influence on his personality and also to his subsequent way of
thinking.
Rilke moved to Switzerland in June 1919. The main reason of his move to Switzerland was his
escape from post-war chaos and to finish his old projects like “Duino Elegies”. Despite his
earnest efforts, Rilke couldn’t find a suitable and affordable place to stay. He tried Soglio,
Locarno, and Berg am Irchel, before finalizing Chateau de Muzot in the commune of Veyras.
This proved to be Rilke’s most creative period in which he finished his decade long-pending
work “Duino Elegies” in few weeks. He also finished another poem cycle, “Sonnets to Orpheus”
during this time period. Rilke's patron Werner Reinhart came to his help in later years. The latter
bought and renovated Muzot for him so that he could live rent-free. Reinhart also introduced
Rilke to an Australian violinist, Alma Moodie. While all was well professionally, on the personal
front, Rilke constantly faced health problems after 1923, which forced him to have long stays in
Territet, near Montreux, on Lake Geneva. He also stayed in Paris from January to August 1925.
Even in his last days, he continued to produce individual poems and few other poems in French.
Personal Life
Rilke life was always influenced by women. Starting from Lou Andreas-Salomé who had an
intellectual influence on him in his early days, he also befriended Swedish writer Ellen Key,
Marthe Hennebert, Italian actress Eleonora Duse, Marie von Thurn und Taxis, and Hertha
Koenig and Nanny Wunderly-Volkart, finally marrying to Clara Westhoff, a sculptress and one
of Auguste Rodin's pupils in 1901. The couple had a daughter named Ruth.
Death
During his last days, Rilke’s prolonged illness was diagnosed as leukemia. He was suffering
from ulcerous sores in mouth, and had pain in stomach and intestines. Struggling continuously
with low spirits, he died on December 29, 1926 in the Valmont Sanatorium in Switzerland. He
was later buried in Raron cemetery to the west of Visp in Switzerland.
Rainer Maria Rilke Timeline:
1875: Rilke was born in Prague.
1884: His parent’s marriage fell.
1886: Was sent to military academy of St. Pölten and Mahrisch-Weisskirchenn.
1891: Left the academy due to poor health.
1895: Passed the university entrance exams.
1895-96: Rilke extensively studied literature, art history and philosophy in Prague and Munich
1897: Rilke met Lou Andreas-Salomé
1898: Rilke, along with Lou and her husband, Friedrich Andreas, traveled to Moscow
1899: Traveled with Lou Andreas-Salomé to Moscow.
1900: Undertook his second journey to Moscow
1901: Married to Clara Westhoff.
1902: Came to Paris.
1912: Started writing his famous poem cycle, Duino Elegies.
1919: Traveled to Switzerland.
1922: Finally completed Duino Elegies in February.
1926: Died in Valmont Sanatorium in Switzerland.