Rilke 'Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angelic orders

The 1st Duino Elegy of Rainer Maria Rilke is an unsurpassed poem is about the difficulties of living in this world, striving for meaning - to be heard. It is about our desire for solitude and our desire to escape it, i.e., the need and the utter impossibility of understanding and being understood in this life.

Rilke had been visiting Duino castle in 1912 and had taken a stroll near the castle, atop the steep cliffs that dropped down to the Adriatic. He heard a voice calling to him as he walked near the cliffs, and he used its words as the opening of this - the first Elegy.

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels' hierarchies? and even if one of them pressed me suddenly against his heart: I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure, and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying. And so I hold myself back and swallow the call-note of my dark sobbing. Ah, whom can we ever turn to in our need? Not angels, not humans, and already the knowing animals are aware that we are not really at home in our interpreted world. Perhaps there remains for us some tree on a hillside, which every day we can take into our vision; there remains for us yesterday's street and the loyalty of a habit so much at ease when it stayed with us that it moved in and never left. Oh and night: there is night, when a wind full of infinite space gnaws at our faces. Whom would it not remain for--that longed-after, mildly
disillusioning presence, which the solitary heart so painfully meets. Is it any less difficult for lovers? But they keep on using each other to hide their own fate. Don't you know yet? Fling the emptiness out of your arms into the spaces we breathe; perhaps the birds will feel the expanded air with more passionate flying.

See the full translation at
http://www.homestar.org/bryannan/duino.html

Category:

Education

Tags:

• first
• Duino
• elegy
• rainer
• maria
• Rilke

[damon132]

Please remind me of what music is this. I love the poem and the music goes perfectly with it but I simply cannot remember what it is.

[soulfetcher]

@damon132 Maurice Ravel - Pavane pour une infante defunte (pavane for a dead Princess)

[damon132]

I am a gardener. Thank you for this wonderful poetry/translation. Such a thoughtful piece with wonderful nature.

[soulfetcher]

@damon132

Thanks for the appreciation - these poems are a delight to work with!

You might also enjoy these -

watch?v=Kafio8ZQnfE

watch?v=T41UiqeLPsA

watch?v=ri0mFVK4i-c

[alchemistra]

Oh so wonderful, soulfetcher : ) thank you so much!  The visual delight of your garden renders a picturesque and poignant flowering of Rilke's words!

[soulfetcher]

- my pleasure, I'm pleased you enjoyed it!

[whenthisusee]

Sublime reading soulfetcher, Thank you so much. Ive read and reread this Elegy for twenty years without really undersanding it until listening to your version.

(novelist/uk).

[NeoChalcedonian]

That's it, I'm determined to commit the First Elegy to memory.

[NeoChalcedonian]

@soulfetcher You are most welcome, sir. Your voice is perfect for this and I trust you to pick the right pictures/music, I will make great use of the videos if you make 'em.

[soulfetcher]

I'm happy to hear that you liked this. I was thinking about doing all 10 Duino Elegies, and you have given me the necessary encouragement-

Stand by for the 2nd Elegy any day :)