March: The Time in Stones

March: The Time in Stones
(click on image to enlarge)
"...inner worlds now
the most practiced /
of distances, as
the other side of thin air:
pure,
immense
no longer habitable."

from To Music, a poem
by Rainer Maria Rilke

This week, an image called
Glacier Landscape.
Also: a new translation
from the German.

(click on image to enlarge)
	"...inner worlds now the most practiced / of distances, as the other side of thin air: pure, immense no longer habitable." from To Music, a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke This week, an image called Glacier Landscape. Also: a new translation from the German.

The guest poem for this week is a new English translation from the work of the German
language poet, Rainer Maria Rilke (from the Rilke website, a concise hyperlinked biography).

The Time in Stones

'Ik droomde, dat ik langzaam leefde...
langzamer dan de oudste steen.' *

M. Vasalis

"I dreamed that I lived slowly...
more slowly than the oldest stone."

Erinnerung

Und du wartest, erwartest das Eine,
das dein Leben unendlich vermehrt;
das Mächtige, Ungemeine,
das Erwachen der Steine,
Tiefen, dir zugekehrt.
Es dämmern im Bücherständer
die Bände in Gold und Braun;
und du denkst an durchfahrene Länder,
an Bilder, an die Gewänder
wiederverlorener Fraun.

Und da weißt du auf einmal: das war es.
Du erhebst dich, und vor dir steht
eines vergangenen Jahres
Angst und Gestalt und Gebet.

aus: Das Buch der Bilder

Remembrance

And you wait, expecting that one thing
that your life endlessly shall multiply;
that one powerful, immense thing,
the awakening of stones,
depths, coming back to you.
Volumes of gold and brown emerge
as dawn out of the bookshelves;
and you reflect upon lands traveled through,
on images, on the garments
of women lost once again.

And then suddenly you realize: that was it.
You rise up and before you stands
the fear and shape and prayer
of a year gone by.

(tr. Cliff Crego)

| listen to Remembrance in German original; listen to English trnaslation # |

| view / print Picture/Poem Poster: Remembrance (86 K) | or download as PDF |

| see also the Rilke Posters |

| listen to other recordings in English and German of twelve poems from
The Book of Images at The Rilke Download Page (# Includes instructions) |

See other recent additions of new English translations of Rilke's poetry, together with
featured photographs at:

(26) March: The Music in Things

(25) February: Images from the Periphery of Time

See also a selection of recent Picture/Poem "Rilke in translation" features at the Rilke Archive.

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