Originals by Ranier Maria Rilke - Translated by Lore Confino
The work is not offered to an honoured person but has been for some time declared as belonging to the estate of the Princess Marie von Thurn and Taxis-Hohenlohe and became Rilke's gift to us
There is only one journey
going inside yourself
R.M.Rilke
The task of the translator of Rilke's Elegies is to seek the underlying motivation of the poet's thoughts and feelings and recreate his poetic vision in another tongue
The Duino Elegies
From the estate of the princess
Marie von Thurn and taxis-Hohenlohe
Introduction
At the end of 1911, the Princess Marie von Thurn and Taxis-Hohenlohe, invited Rilke to her castle Duino near Triest, high above the Adriatic, for a carefree stay in which he could find peace and inspiration for his creative work. From there, he writes in a letter of 14 December 1911:
"I am really totally alone within the old walls, outside the sea, outside the rain, outside the Karst, perhaps tomorrow outside the storm - now it should became clear what is the inner counterweight to such great and profound things..."
One day, in January 1912, whilst on the ramparts of the castle Duino, during a turbulent storm and the Adriatic raging beneath him, Rilke seemed to hear a voice calling to him:
Wer, wenn ich schriee, hoerte mich denn
aus der Engel Ordnungen?
Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the Angel hierachies?
He copied these words into his notebook and it seemed to him in that dramatic moment,that he was called to fulfil his life's work, his mission as poet.
The first and second Elegies were written immediately, but the cycle would take him 1O years and was completed in 1922.
In February of that year, at the little Chateau de Muzot in the Valais, Rilke, in a fever of creativity, completed the Elegies and then wrote the Elegie des Saltimbanques to replace the original Fifth Elegy.
That evening, February 11, he wrote:
"at last,
Princess,
at last, the blessed, the most blessed day, that I can let you know the conclusion, as far as I can see, of the Elegies,
Ten!
From the last, the great (once begun in Duino: "That, one day, I might go forth from bitterest insight, singing out in exultation and praise to responding Angels...") from this last one, which was already meant to be the last - from this one - my hand is still shaking! Just now, Saturday 11, at six o'clock in the evening, it is done! All in a few days, it was an indescribable storm, a tempest of the spirit,(as before in Duino) all that is fibre and tissue in me has collapsed - food was unthinkable, God knows who fed me.
But now it is. Is. Is,
Amen"
In his Elegies, Rilke wrestles with the uncertainty of our place in the world, conscious of our Fate and the gulf between us and the 'otherness', the sheer unquestioning being of Nature, Plants and Animals. In this theatre of life with its mythic and heroic figures, its cast of Angels and lovers, its acrobats and puppets, its mothers and young dead and, finally, the Griefs personifying our sorrows - they all play their part in the drama of existence, the bitter loneliness and sense of loss, our transient state and, finally, in the Tenth Elegy, acceptance and hope of renewal.
Preface
Rilke's Elegies are an enigma, a great challenge to understanding the meaning of life and our place in the world. Translating has not been an easy journey. There have been obstacles on the way - mountains to climb, rivers to cross, roads leading to nowhere, but also lush meadows and trees, sunrise and sunset. I have had to retrace my steps many times and begin the journey again and again. I have tried to unravel thoughts and imagery and give the Elegies their own life in English. The original German, when read aloud, brings to the ear the lyric beauty; a symphony in which each instrument adds its own voice.
On 13 November 1925, in answer to his Polish translator, Witolf Hulewisz, regarding the Elegies, Rilke wrote:
"... and am I the one who may give the Elegies the right explanation? They reach far beyond me..."
We have to bring our own experience of life to the Elegies, as did Rilke during his troubled years, and find our own answers.
Brief outline of the Elegies
Gaspara Starrpa, a sixteen century noblewoman was deserted by her lover and found expression of her despair in her sonnets