Rilke translations (by Doug Ordsunio)

A few poems by the master,,,

In 1984, while I was on vacation in Olympia, Washington, I discovered Rainer Maria Rilke, in the translations to English by Stephen Mitchell. I was bowled over to say the least by the way his words reached into the depths of my heart. I actually talked with Mitchell later in that year, and congratulated him on the beauty of his work. He did not speak German fluently; neither do I. However, I do have some facility with the grammar of that language.  So I have attempted my own translation of a few poems, which I created in 2008.  Please enjoy them…

 

Love Song

 

How shall I hold my soul so that it does not touch yours?

How shall I live it above you to other things?

 

All, I would like to place it near something lost in darkness,

In a foreign silent place,

That doesn’t quiver when your inner depths tremble.

 

And yet, whatever moves us, you and me,

Takes us to gather in a single bow’s stroke

So that from two strings sound one voice.

Over what instrument are we stretched?

And what violinist holds us in his hand? 

O sweet song.

 

LEDA

 

When the god in is poverty entered,

He was almost frightened to find the swan so beautiful;

He allowed himself to disappear, quite bewildered, within it.

 

Already, his deception carried him to the deed,

Before he could examine the feelings of this unexplored being.

 

The adorned woman already recognized who was coming inside the swan,

And she understood: he asked one thing,

That she, flustered in her opposition, could no longer hide..

 

He came down, and embracing through the weakening hand,

The god loosed himself within the beloved

Then for the first time, he joyfully felt his feathers

And became a true swan in her womb.

 

WOMAN IN LOVE

 

This is my window.

I’ve just been so softly awakened.

I thought I was floating.

To where does my life reach,

And where does night begin?

 

 

I could think that everything around

Was still me;

Transparent as a crystal’s depths,

Darkened, mute.

 

I could even hold the stars within me;

So large does my heart seem to me;

 

So readily did it release him again,

He whom I had perhaps begun to love

Or begun to hold.

 

Foreign, indescribable

My destiny looks upon me

 

Why am I situated in this infinite space

Redolent like a meadow

Moving to and fro?

 

Calling out and at the same time fearful

That someone will hear the call

And ordain me to ruin in on neither life.

 

PARTING

 

How I have felt what parting means

O how I know this: a dark unwounded

Terrible something, that again offers a perfect unity,

Tantalizes with it, and tears it apart.

 

I was without defense, watching it

Call to me, release me, staying behind,

As if women were nevertheless small and white and nothing

More than a sign, no longer referring to me,

A gentle constant beckoning�"barely explicable,

Perhaps a plum tree from which a cuckoo has abruptly flown.

 

OFFERING

 

O, how my body blooms from every vein,

Aromatically, since I saw you;

You see, I am slimmer and more upright,

And you only wait�"who are you then?

 

I feel as if I have departed,

As I lost my past, leaf by leaf,

Only your smile stands like the pure stars

Over you and also over me.

 

Everything from my childhood was anonymous

And sparkled like water;

I will call after you at the altar which is ignited from your hair

And lightly garlanded with your breasts.

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