02.02.08
I believe in all — Rainer Maria Rilke (Redux)
I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear
without my contriving.
If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.
Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing to you as no one ever has,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing to you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~
(Rilke’s Book of Hours:Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)
maryt
James Steerforth said,
February 3, 2008 at 4:49 am
Don’t know whether you read German at all, but here’s the original, which this translation has simplified, watered down or even partially misunderstood IMHPOUO (in my honest pretentious or unpretentious opinion)
Ich glaube an alles noch nie Gesagte.
Ich will meine frömmsten Gefühle befrein.
Was noch keiner zu wollen wagte,
wird mir einmal unwillkürlich sein.
Ist das vermessen, mein Gott, vergib.
Aber ich will dir damit nur sagen:
Meine beste Kraft soll sein wie ein Trieb,
so ohne Zürnen und ohne Zagen;
so haben dich ja die Kinder lieb.
Mit diesem Hinfluten, mit diesem Münden
in breiten Armen ins offene Meer,
mit dieser wachsenden Wiederkehr
will ich dich bekennen, will ich dich verkünden
wie keiner vorher.
Und ist das Hoffart, so laß mich hoffärtig sein
für mein Gebet,
das so ernst und allein
vor deiner wolkigen Stirne steht.
maryt said,
February 3, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Oh James, can you translate the poem more accurately? Thanks for taking the time to given me the German which I don’t read but a good friend of mine does!
James Steerforth said,
February 4, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Here’s another translation of the poem I found on the Internet, which stays closer to the original:
I believe in everything not yet said.
I want to liberate my most devout feelings.
What no one has ever dared to desire,
will become in time for me necessity.
If that is unreachable, my Lord, then forgive me.
But I want to say to you only this:
The best of my energies shall be like a drive,
without anger and without timidity;
like the way that children love you.
With this overflowing, with this emptying
into the wide arms of the open sea,
with this ever-growing return,
I want to confess, I want to proclaim to you
as no other before me.
And if this is arrogance, then let me be arrogant
for the sake of my prayer,
that in such seriousness and aloneness
before your clouded brow stands.
Translated by Cliff Crego
mutteringmadzub said,
November 10, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Ausgezeichnet! Thank you for the beautuful words to be pondered and practiced.