Rainer Maria Rilke

Selected Poems

Rainer Maria Rilke, R. Rilke, Albert E. Flemming

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 1986
• eBook ISBN: 9781136764332
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

First published in 1986, this is the translation from German to English by Albert Ernest Flemming, enabling the reader to fully appreciate Rilke's poems in their form, sensitivity and concentrated images. This volume includes collected poetry covering sonnets, elegies and a chronology of Rilke's life.

FROM THE TWO BOOKS

of

NEW POEMS

(NEUE GEDICHTE)

1907 and 1908

ARCHAIC TORSO OF APOLLO

(A mon grand Ami Auguste Rodin)

ost is for us the sun god’s glorious head

which held the eyes’ unfathomable gaze,

but like a miracle, turning his glance

inward, incandescent his torso gleams

and casts a spell. How else could light pour forth

across the breast’s expanse and blind you with

its grace? And softly now descend the curve,

caressing with a smile the thighs

that cradle man’s renewing source of life.

Else would this marble torso stand defaced

and short beneath the shoulders’ broad expanse,

and would not glisten like a wild beast’s fur,

nor would its contours burst forth like a star.

For every part of this commanding form

holds you in its gaze. Henceforth your life must change.

EARLY APOLLO

s when sometimes through branches, leafless still,

a morning bursts with all the force of Spring,

so there is nothing in his head that could

prevent the radiant power of all poems

to strike us almost deadly with its light.

For there is yet no shadow in his gaze,

too cool for laurel are his temples still,

and round the eyebrows only later will

come climbing long-stemmed roses from his garden,

and petals, separating from their blooms,

will drift and rest upon his trembling mouth

that yet is silent, sparkling and unused,

and only hinting with a smile as if

a song were soon to reach his open lips.

ROMAN FOUNTAIN

(Villa Borghese, Rome)

wo basins,

one above the other suspended

and both upheld

over the ancient marble pool below,

the water gently rising and falling,

reaching the brim and gliding

down to the waiting basin below

that like an upheld mirror

reflecting sky and clouds

hiding behind dark evergreens

objects indistinguishable,

dreamlike continuing on its course,

without regret,

circle upon circle,

till lazily reaching the moss-clad rim

and surrendering to its final mirror,

drop by drop,

causing the pool to smile darkly from below,

rippling by its overflowing.

SONG OF THE SEA

(Capri, Piccola Marina)

imeless sea breezes,

sea-wind of the night:

you come for no one;

if someone should wake,

he must be prepared

how to survive you.

Timeless sea breezes,

that for aeons have

blown on ancient rocks,

you are purest space

coming from afar …

Oh, how a fruit-bearing

fig tree feels your coming

high up in the moonlight.

CATHEDRAL OF SAINT MARK

(Venice)

ithin this inner space, that seems as if

it had been hollowed out, suggested by the

arches curving upward supporting golden

vaults, round-edged, smooth, niches filled with preciousness:

within this space was kept in darkness the city’s

treasures, secretly collected, as a counterweight

to the light, that in all things multiplied itself

so rapidly, that they almost seemed to disappear ---,

and suddenly you feel impelled to doubt:

will they remain? And you push your way through

the gallery that, like a catwalk in a gold mine hangs

near the shining arches of the ceiling; and you

are relieved to find yourself standing in the

brilliant light shining through the windows

above the team of the four famous horses of antiquity,

while you cast regretful glances backward as you leave.

THE APPLE ORCHARD

ome let us watch the sun go down

and walk in twilight through the orchard’s green.

Does it not seem as if we had for long

collected, saved and harbored within us

old memories? To find release and seek

new hopes, remembering half-forgotten joys,

mingled with darkness coming from within,

as we randomly voice our thoughts aloud

wandering beneath these harvest-laden trees

reminiscent of D...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Author’s Preface
• Introduction by Victor Lange
• From the Book of Prayers (Das Stundenbuch)
• From the Book of Images (Das Buch Der Bilder)
• The Voices (Die Stimmen)
• From the Two Books of New Poems (Neue Gedichte)
• The Life of the Virgin Mary: (Das Marienleben) 1912
• Sonnets to Orpheus (Sonette an Orpheus) Muzot,1922
• From the Duino Elegies: (Die Duineser Elegien)
• Collected Poems Covering the Years from 1906 to 1926: (Gesammelte Gedichte Aus Den Jahren 1906 bis 1926:)
• Chronology of Rilke’s Life