August: Summer Meadow

RILKE | August: Summer Meadow
(click on photo to enlarge)

"You don't have to understand Life's nature,
then it becomes a grand affair. [...]"

from the early work, Mir zur Feier
(Celebration of Myself)
by Rainer Maria Rilke

This week, an image of Summer
Meadow. Also: a new translation
from the German.

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(click on photo to enlarge)
	"You don't have to understand Life's nature, then it becomes a grand affair. [...]" from the early work, Mir zur Feier (Celebration of Myself) by Rainer Maria Rilke This week, an image of Summer Meadow. Also: a new translation from the German. Follow my RilkeQuotes on twitter \| rss \|

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

The Early Rilke . . .

[Du musst das Leben nicht verstehen]

Du musst das Leben nicht verstehen,
dann wird es werden wie ein Fest.
Und lass dir jeden Tag geschehen
so wie ein Kind im Weitergehen von jedem Wehen
sich viele Blüten schenken lässt.

Sie aufzusammeln und zu sparen,
das kommt dem Kind nicht in den Sinn.
Es löst sie leise aus den Haaren,
drin sie so gern gefangen waren,
und hält den lieben jungen Jahren
nach neuen seine Hände hin.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1898)

[You don't have to understand Life's nature]

You don't have to understand Life's nature,
then it becomes a grand affair.
Let every day just of itself occur
like a child walks away from every wind
and happens upon the gift of many flowers.

To collect and the blossoms spare,
that never enters the child's mind.
She gently unties them from her hair,
where they were kept captive with such delight,
and the hands of the loving, youthful years
reach out to embrace the new.

(tr. Cliff Crego)


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Listen to mp3's of Cliff Crego reading the poem in German original [800 K]
or in English translation [700 K ] [to download: Windows: r click; Mac: opt + click]

| Selected Sonnets to Orpheus twenty-two poems in the order they have been featured (text only) | PDF of Six Sonnets |

| see also the Rilke Posters |

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

(9) June: Windflowers and the Poetry of Praise

(8) June: The Poetry of Images of Movement