fire – Energy and Time

Wolle die Wandlung. O sei die Flamme begeistert,
drin sich ein Ding dir entzieht, das mit Verwandlungen prunkt;
jener entwerfende Geist, welcher das Irdische meistert,
liebt in dem Schwung der Figur nichts wie den wendenden Punkt.

Was sich ins Bleiben verschließt, schon ists das Erstarrte;
wähnt es sich sicher im Schutz des unscheinbaren Grau's?
Warte, ein Härtestes warnt aus der Ferne das Harte.
Wehe-: abwesender Hammer holt aus!

Wer sich als Quelle ergießt, den erkennt die Erkennung;
und sie führt ihn entzückt durch das heiter Geschaffne,
das mit Anfang oft schließt und mit Ende beginnt.

Jeder glückliche Raum ist Kind oder Enkel von Trennung,
den die staunend durchgehn. Und die verwandelte Daphne
will, seit sie lorbeern fühlt, daß du dich wandelst in Wind.

Want transformation. Oh, take inspiration from the flame,
wherein something escapes from you, which flaunts its very burning;
that architecting spirit which has mastered the mundane,
loves in the swirl of symbol best of all the point of turning.

What stays shut up inside itself, already is solidified;
does it dream it's safe in the shelter of inconspicuous grays?
Wait, from far away a Hardest warns the hard and petrified.
Alas - an absent hammer is upraised!

He who pours out like a spring is realized by Realization;
it leads him on in rapture through ebullient creation,
that often ends with starting and with ending oft begins.

Every happy space is child or grandchild of separation,
through which they pass amazed. And Daphne, after transformation,
wants, since she feels laurel, that you turn yourself to wind.

Translation notes:

lines 13-14: “Daphne … lorbeern”: Robert M. Durling, in his notes to a Petrarch sonnet (Rime sparse #5), observes “Daphne, daughter of the river god Peneus in Thessaly, was pursued by Apollo. She prayed to her father to preserve her virginity, and when Apollo caught up with her she was transformed into a laurel. Apollo adopted the tree as his own and crowned himself with a wreath from it. (Ovid, Metamorphoses l.452-567)”. The theme of Daphne occurs many times in Petrarch, perhaps since his beloved’s name (Laura) was related to laurel. All the Sonnets to Orpheus are “Petrarchean” in a loose sense, being divided 4-4-3-3, as opposed to the Shakespearean or English sonnet form divided 4-4-4-2; Rilke must have read some Petrarch at some time. Also, in Latin laurel is “laurus” and is thought to derive from the verb “laudare”, to praise. Praise is a recurring theme throughout these sonnets, starting with the end of I,6 leading into the praise-centered I,7.

Sollen wir unsere uralte Freundschaft, die großen niemals werbenden Götter, weil sie der harte Stahl, den wir streng erzogen, nicht kennt, oder sie plötzlich suchen auf einer Karte Diese gewaltigen Freunde, die uns die Toten nehmen, rühren nirgends an unsere Räder. Unsere Gastmähler haben wir weit -, unsere Bäder, fortgerückt, und ihre uns lang schon zu langsamen Boten überholen wir immer. Einsamer nun aufeinander ganz angewiesen, ohne einander zu kennen, führen wir nicht mehr die Pfade als schöne Mäander, sondern als Grade. Nur noch in Dampfkesseln brennen die einstigen Feuer und heben die Hämmer, die immer größern. Wir aber nehmen an Kraft ab, wie Schwimmer.

Just because they do not know the hard strong steel that we raise up, should we offend the great unmentioned gods, our oldest friends, or seek them suddenly upon a chart? These mighty friends, who take away the dead, do not affect the circles of our gears. We hold our banquets far away from here, seclude our baths, and always speed ahead of their slow messengers. Now just depending on each other, ignorant of each other, we no longer blaze a trail with lovely bending, but just a slope. The former fires burn only in boilers now and lift the ever bigger hammers. But we lose our strength, like swimmers.

Tag Archives: fire

Sonnets To Orpheus II, 12

Translation notes:

Sonnets To Orpheus I, 24