oceans – Energy and Time

O ihr Zärtlichen, tretet zuweilen
in dem Atem, der euch nicht meint,
laß ihn an eueren Wangen sich teilen,
hinter euch zittert er, wieder vereint.

O ihr Seiligen, o ihr Heilen,
die ihr der Anfang der Herzen scheint.
Bogen der Pfeile und Ziele von Pfeilen,
ewiger glänzt euer Lächeln verweint.

Fürchtet euch nicht zu leiden, die Schwere,
gebt sie zurück an der Erde Gewicht;
schwer sind die Berge, schwer sind die Meere.

Selbst die als Kinder ihr pflanztet, die Bäume,
wurden zu schwer längst; ihr trüget sie nicht.
Aber die Lüfte ... aber die Räume ...

Oh you tender ones, step now and then
into the breath, that knows not of you,
upon your cheeks let it split in two,
behind you it quivers, united again.

Oh you blessed ones, oh you whole,
in whom the beginning of hearts appears.
Bows for arrows and arrows' goal,
your smile is always stained with tears.

Don't be afraid the weight will oppress,
give it back to the Earth's heaviness;
heavy are the mountains, heavy are the seas.

The trees that you planted as children, these
have long been too heavy for you to bear.
But space ... but the air ...

Translation notes:

Connection from previous sonnet: “breath … gust … wind” => “breath” as metaphor for wind

Line 5: “Seiligen … Heilen”: More literal might be “saints … healers”.

Line 7: “Ziele” “goal”: Literally “target”, but there was no way to make that work. The whole line could be interpreted in terms of Cupid’s arrows, meaning falling in love; in that case it would be saying that young people are both easy to fall in love with (“bows for arrows”) and also easily fall in love (“targets for arrows”), the latter explaining why their smiles are always tear-stained. Rilke’s sonnets follow the Petrarchan 4-4-3-3 form (rather than the Shakespearean 4-4-4-2 form), and we find this theme already in Petrarch (Rime sparse #133): Amor m’à posto come segno a strale, “Love has set me up like a target for arrows”.

Line 14: “Aber die Lüfte … aber die Räume …”: Literally “But the airs … but the spaces …”. The sequence of these is important; since space is more empty and lighter than air, it should come last to maximize the expansiveness of going from being burdened by heavy things to being utterly unburdened. I wasn’t able to find a way to retain that order; doing so caused more damage than I was willing to tolerate. But changing the order weakens the line.

Tag Archives: oceans

Sonnets To Orpheus I, 4

Translation notes: