Streamline Training & Documentation: A Poem from Rainer Maria Rilke

Sunday, December 30, 2007

A Poem from Rainer Maria Rilke

O sage, Dichter, was du tust?
                                - Ich rühme.

Aber das Tödliche und Ungetüme,
wie haltst du's aus, wie nimmst du's hin?
                                - Ich rühme.

Aber das Namenlose, Anonyme,
wie rufst du's, Dichter, dennoch an?
                                - Ich rühme.

Woher dein Recht, in jeglichem Kostüme,
in jeder Maske wahr zu sein?
                                - Ich rühme.

Und dass das Stille und das Ungestüme
wie Stern und Sturm dich kennen?
                                - Weil ich rühme.

***
Translation by A.S. Kline

O tell me Poet what you do?
                                - I praise.

But the deathly and the monstrous,
How do you accept them, bear them?
                                - I praise.

But the nameless, the anonymous.
How, Poet, can you still invoke it?
                                - I praise.

Under every costume, every mask of us,
What right have you to be true?
                                - I praise.

Or that the calm and the impetuous
Should know you, as star and storm?
                                - Because I praise.

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Labels: Arts

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