THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE, URNERLOCH, the Alps & RILKE'S Just as once a winged delight , , ,

CLIFF CREGO | THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE, URNERLOCH, the Alps

THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE, URNERLOCH, the Alps
On the road in the American Northwest. [click photo for next . . . ]

[Just as once a wingèd delight carried...]
—a late, uncollected poem from the German,
by Rainer Maria Rilke

Just as once a wingèd delight carried
you across many an earlier abyss,
for your as yet undreamed of bridges.,
build now the boldly calculated arch.

The miracle is not just that you survived,
inexplicably, such danger;
the miracle becomes only miraculous
with the clearly recognized accomplishment.

To participate is not to presume anything
of the unknowable of relationship;
Just being swept along is not enough,
as ever-more inward reaches the intricate web.

Your much-practiced powers stretch
until they span the divide between two
contradictions ...For only inside of man
does God find true guidance.

Rainer Maria Rilke (tr. Cliff Crego)

[Da dich das geflügelte Entzücken...]

Da dich das geflügelte Entzücken
über manchen frühen Abgrund trug,
baue jetzt der unerhörten Brücken
kühn berechenbaren Bug.

Wunder ist nicht nur im unerklärten
Überstehen der Gefahr,
erst in einer klaren reingewährten
Leistung wird es wunderbar.

Mitzuwirken ist nicht Überhebung
an dem unbeschreiblichen Bezug,
immer inniger wird die Verwebung,
nur Getragensein ist nicht genug.

Deine ausgeübten Kräfte spanne,
bis sie reichen, zwischen zwein
Widersprüchen …Denn im Manne
Will der Gott beraten sein.

Rainer Maria Rilke (uncollected, 1924,
Muzot, Switzerland)

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Please visit my picture-poems.com MOUNTAIN WATER
print gallery. Above is a set of about 60 recent images.
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I might just mention here, following the simple ethical principle,
First, do no harm, that I never use cars or trucks or snowmachines.
Instead, I do everything on foot, or bike or ski. I think this in a
direct way affects my work, and deeply affects how I see
the world. So all the photos above were approached
on foot—including all the 'in between spaces,' sometimes
involving journeys of weeks or months.

I would not want to work any other way.

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New English translations
from the German of 80
of Rainer Maria Rilke's
best poems, together
with 120 color prints
from the High Wallowas.
With introduction . . .