Rainer Maria Rilke
From The Tenth Elegy
Ah, but the City of Pain: how strange its streets are: The false silence of sound drowning sound, And there proud, brazen, effluence from the mold of emptiness The gilded hubbub, the bursting monument.
Lady On A Balcony
Suddenly she steps, wrapped into the wind, Brightly into brightness, as if singled out, While now the room as though cut to fit Behind her fills the door Darkly like the ground of cameo,
Archaic Torso Of Apollo
We cannot know his legendary head With eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso Is still suffused with brilliance from inside, Like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low, Gleams
Fire's Reflection
Perhaps it’s no more than the fire’s reflection On some piece of gleaming furniture That the child remembers so much later Like a revelation. And if in his later life, one day Wounds him
Early Spring
Harshness vanished. A sudden softness Has replaced the meadows’ wintry grey. Little rivulets of water changed Their singing accents. Tendernesses, Hesitantly, reach toward the earth From space, and country lanes are showing These unexpected
The Lovers
See how in their veins all becomes spirit; Into each other they mature and grow. Like axles, their forms tremblingly orbit, Round which it whirls, bewitching and aglow. Thirsters, and they receive drink, Watchers,
The Sonnets To Orpheus: I
A tree ascended there. Oh pure transendence! Oh Orpheus sings! Oh tall tree in the ear! And all things hushed. Yet even in that silence A new beginning, beckoning, change appeared. Creatures of stillness
Music
Take me by the hand; It’s so easy for you, Angel, For you are the road Even while being immobile. You see, I’m scared no one Here will look for me again; I couldn’t
Dedication To M
Swing of the heart. O firmly hung, fastened on what Invisible branch. Who, who gave you the push, That you swung with me into the leaves? How near I was to the exquisite fruits.
Telling You All
Telling you all would take too long. Besides, we read in the Bible How the good is harmful And how misfortune is good. Let’s invite something new By unifying our silences; If, then and
Duino Elegies: The Fourth Elegy
O trees of life, oh, what when winter comes? We are not of one mind. Are not like birds In unison migrating. And overtaken, Overdue, we thrust ourselves into the wind And fall to
Venetian Morning
Windows pampered like princes always see What on occasion deigns to trouble us: The city that, time and again, where a shimmer Of sky strikes a feeling of floodtide, Takes shape without once choosing
On Hearing Of A Death
We lack all knowledge of this parting. Death Does not deal with us. We have no reason To show death admiration, love or hate; His mask of feigned tragic lament gives us A false
The Future
The future: time’s excuse To frighten us; too vast A project, too large a morsel For the heart’s mouth. Future, who won’t wait for you? Everyone is going there. It suffices you to deepen
The Sonnets To Orpheus: X
You who are close to my heart always, I welcome you, ancient coffins of stone, Which the cheerful water of Roman days Still flows through, like a wandering song. Or those other ones that