August: Moving Up into Mountain Time II. . .
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"Only the dead drink from the spring heard by us here, when the god silently waves to them, / the dead. For us, noise is all that is offered. And the lamb begs for its bell out of a more quiet instinct." from Sonnet XVI (SECOND PART), from Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke This week, an image called Shepherd Rock, Gathering the sheep —the Alps. Also: two new translations from the German. |
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XVI [ZWEITER TEIL] Immer wieder von uns aufgerissen, ist der Gott die Stelle, welche heilt. Wir sind Scharfe, denn wir wollen wissen, aber er ist heiter und verteilt. Selbst die reine, die geweihte Spende nimmt er anders nicht in seine Welt, als indem er sich dem freien Ende unbewegt entgegenstellt. Nur der Tote trinkt aus der hier von uns gehörten Quelle, wenn der Gott ihm schweigend winkt, / dem Toten. Uns wird nur das Lärmen angeboten. Und das Lamm erbittet seine Schelle aus dem stilleren Instinkt. |
XVI [SECOND
PART] Torn away from us again and again is the god of the place which heals. We are sharp-edged, for we have to know, but he is [un]divided and serene. Even the pure, the consecrated gift he declines to take into his world for, unmoved, he stands contrary to the unfettered conclusion. Only the dead drink from the spring heard by us here, when the god silently waves to them, / the dead. For us, noise is all that is offered. And the lamb, out of a more quiet instinct, begs for its bell. |
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XIX [ERSTER TEIL] Wandelt sich rasch auch die Welt wie Wolkengestalten, alles Vollendete fällt heim zum Uralten. Über dem Wandel und Gang, weiter und freier, währt noch dein Vor-Gesang, Gott mit der Leier. Nicht sind die Leiden erkannt, nicht ist die Liebe gelernt, und was im Tod uns entfernt, ist nicht entschleiert. Einzig das Lied überm Land heiligt und feiert. |
XIX [FIRST PART] Even when the world swiftly changes, as the form of clouds, all things completed fall back into the Primordial. Above stride and change, further and freer, your prelude endures, god with a lyre. Sufferings have not been seen, Love has not been learned, and what removes us in Death, has not been revealed. Only the song over the land hallows and rejoices. |
| listen to Sonnet XIX [FIRST
PART]... German
/ English one recording # |
| view / print
P/P
Poster: Sonnets to Orpheus XVI (2) (72 K) | or
download
as PDF |
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Orpheus is the musician of musicians
of classical Greek mythology. He is the one
whose magical art of the lyre has the power to charm the whole of
Nature—the trees,
rivers, stones and even the wild animals, into the silence of listening.
Son of Calliope,
the muse of epic poetry, and a Thracian river-god (in some versions of the
story Apollo),
Orpheus married the nymph Eurydice who was fated to die of a serpent bite
on her heel.
In his profound grief, Orpheus follows his beloved into the underworld, and
with the
sound of his lyre enchants the resident deities into consenting to her release.
The one
condition which Orpheus has to meet during the ascent back to the upperworld
is that
he is not to look back at Eurydice. In a brief moment of weakness, he does,
however,
look back, whereby Eurydice vanishes forever without a trace.
Rejecting all women in his sadness afterwards, Orpheus is later ripped to
pieces by the
Maenads. This then is the source of the famous image of Orpheus' lyre and
singing head,
floating off through empty space to the island of Lesbos.
(37) August: Moving Up into Mountain Time
(36) August: Lily, unfloding . . .
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See also another website by Cliff Crego: The Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke |
a presentation of 80 of the best poems of Rilke in both German and new English translations: biography, links, posters |
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See also: new |
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"Straight
roads, Slow rivers, Deep clay." |
A collection of contemporary Dutch poetry in English translation, with commentary and photographs by Cliff Crego |