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Rainer Maria Rilke
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Rainer Maria Rilke Poems
- A Walk My eyes already touch the sunny hill. going far ahead...
- Love Song How can I keep my soul in me, so that it doesn't ...
- The Panther His vision, from the constantly passing ...
- Black Cat A ghost, though invisible, still is like a ...
- Again And Again Again and again, however we know the ...
- Before Summer Rain Suddenly, from all the green around ...
- You Who Never Arrived You who never arrived in my arms, ...
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (German pronunciation: [ˈʁaɪnɐ maˈʁiːa ˈʁɪlkə]), better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian-Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language. His haunting images focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety: themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets. He wrote in both verse and a highly lyrical prose. Among English-language readers, his best-known work is the Duino Elegies; his two most famous prose works are the Letters to a Young Poet and the semi-autobiographical Notebooks... more »
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Quotations
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''He reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there's another dog.''
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), German poet. Letter, October 23, 1907. Letters on Cézanne (1952, trans. 1985). On Cézanne.
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The great renewal of the world will perhaps consist in this, that man and maid, freed of all false feelings and reluctances, will seek each other not as opposites, but as brother and sister, as neighb...
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), German poet. Letter, July 16, 1903. Letters to a Young Poet (1934, rev. 1954).
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''Not since Moses has anyone seen a mountain so greatly.''
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), German poet. Quoted in Rilke, Letters on Cézanne, foreword (1952, trans. 1985). Remarking on Cézanne's picture of ...
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Just as the creative artist is not allowed to choose, neither is he permitted to turn his back on anything: a single refusal, and he is cast out of the state of grace and becomes sinful all the way th...
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), German poet. Letter, October 23, 1907, to his wife. Rilke's Letters on Cézanne (1952, trans. 1985).
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''Surely all art is the result of one's having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, where no one can go any further.''
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), German poet. Letter, June 24, 1907, to his wife. Rilke's Letters on Cézanne (1952, trans. 1985).
A Walk
My eyes already touch the sunny hill.
going far ahead of the road I have begun.
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has inner light, even from a distance-
and charges us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it,
we already are; a gesture waves us on
answering our own wave...
but what we feel is the wind in our faces.
Translated by Robert Bly
An underappreciated artist of consummate skill. His Sonnets to Orpheus are sublime.
The Song of the Dwarf
Maybe my soul is straight and good,
but she's got to lug my heart, my blood,
which all hurts because it's crooked;
its weight sends her staggering.
She has no bed, she has no home,
she merely hangs on my sharp bones,
flapping her terrible wings.
And my hands are completely shot,
shriveled, worn: here, take a look
at how they clammily, clumsily hop
like rain-crazed toads.
As for all the other stuff,
it's all used up and sad and old—
why doesn't God haul me out to the muck
and let me drop.
Is it because of my mug
with its frowning mouth?
So often I would itch
to be luminous and free of fog
but nothing would approach
except big dogs.
And the dogs got zilch.
(Rainer Maria Rilke)
I am searching for the poem by M. R. Rilke in which he speaks about pushing thru solid rock.
Hi guys, I am reading a Portuguese translation from a poem that I know was written by Rainer Maria Rilke, unfortunately the title is missing. Do any of you know which poem starts something like Nothing is comparable. maybe there is something
Thanks in advance for any help
does anyone have those lines by Rilke where he is sitting in the rich darkness expectant about the light coming?
Trying to confirm a poem or quote that is attributed to Rilke: 'In love, practice only this: letting each other go. Holding on comes easily, we don't need to learn it. Practice letting go.'
'Again and Again' I reread after 25 years today. Kept me entranced again. Time has not taken any of Rilke's charm away.
Rainer Maria Rilke is my favorite poet. Upon hearing his poem, 'The Panther' I became breathless, emotional and was totally captivated by it. Every time I hear or reread that poem I am totally mesmerized by his skill.
'Autumn' is such a beautiful poem in German. Its worth reading out loud even if you don't understand all the words. All you need to remember is to pronounce the German W as an English V, the German V as an English F, and the German letter ä sounds like 'eh' or 'air' (with no R sound at the end) .