circle by circle by circle…
readings this week...
Ranier Maria Rilke
“I live my life”
I live my life in growing orbits,
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
But that will be my attempt.
I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years.
And I still don’t know if I am a falcon,
or a storm, or a great song.
(Trans. Robert Bly)
*
Rilke’s ending is amazing. His sense of losing control is focused from the personal. Yeats’ famous circling falcon, the historical.
4 comments:
Rilke is amazing, but I always find the comments and interpretations of Robert Bly indispensable. Rilke is strong coffee and Bly, the cream, a necessary ingredient. Do you agree?
Rilke is wonderful. I cannot imagine the planet without the Duino Elegies. Thanks for the read Dennis.
Sam - There's so much confusion among Rilke's admirers as to which translation of the Duino Elegies is "the best" or most faithful to his mother-tongue. Who's translation do you find most worthy?
Dennis ~
Stephen Mitchell's version is the one I keep returning to.
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