Rainer Maria Rilke Diskussionforum

Hello,
As I previously written, Lea Goldberg which was a marvelous hebrew poet and translator translated some of Rilke's poetry. As he was one of her favorite poets' she also wrote a poem named "R.M. Rilke". In this poem she uses many allusions to Rilke's poems. for example: God's Sndal which is an allusion to "Was wirst du tun, Gott, wenn ich sterbe?" and the Cathedral's tower which is an allusion to "Die Kathdrale" or to "Gott im Mittelalter". I'm writing here a free translation to the poem and asking you to found more allusions to Rilke's poems.

R.M. Rilke
In the peaceful twilights of the metropolins the is an hour - where there only the light blue and upwards,
It opens a Springy window, like hand the poetry book,
And to all ladders' moments that climb the Cathedrale's spikes
the radiant hours' poet raise singing babies.

He goes out to the metropolin like the Organ's song to the Mass,
to untie his God's sandal, which is high but so human.
And his verses full silence sparkles on the dream's roofs,
the curtain of high-silence comes-down from its hights to my soul.

And maybe in that hour that opens as a dawning miralce
somenone light his candle in front of secret and innocent devotion,
and sees the heavenly smile, and confess, and does not know,
that this primeval Spring of the metropolin blooms over his warm hand.

Thanks,
Anat

Dear Anat,

to "the radiant hours' poet" I associate not only the Stunden-Buch, but also the poem Oh sage, Dichter, was Du tust? - Ich rühme (Oh say, poet, what is it you do? - I praise.)

The "ladders' moments" make me think (though rather vaguely) of this poem's last lines:

• Wer es im Innersten begreift der steigt,
  und oben ist das Ende seiner Leiter
  ans Gleichgesinnte sicher angeneigt.

("He who comprehends it in its core ascends,
the upper end of his ladder
firmly leaning on the like-minded.")

And, finally, the "curtain of silence" reminds me of Die Stille where Rilke speaks of "seidene Stille" (silken silence) and of the "Vorhang der Ferne" (curtain of remoteness) --- and, of course, the whole poem is "full of silence" as well as "sparkling"...


You use the word "metropolin" twice in your translation. Do you really mean "capital city, metropolis" or just "town, city"? I don't recall anything where Rilke speaks of "Hauptstadt"; he often speaks about "Städte", though.

What a pity I don't understand Hebrew - I would love to read Lea Goldberg's poem!

Herzlichen Gruß,
Ingrid

Thans. You've been great help. I wish you could read Goldbergs poetry. It is beautiful. and many times resembles Rilke. I wrote an article in English which was published recently in Neohelicon concidering Rilke's "Der Auszug des verlorenen Sohnes" and Gldberg's "The return of the prodigal son".
Anat