Always to live among words, whether one wants to or not,always to be alive, full of words about life,as if words were alive, as if life meant words. But it’s otherwise, believe me.Between a word and a thingyou only encounter yourself,lying between each as if next to someone ill,never able to get to either,tasting a… Continue reading Ingeborg Bachmann
Nostalgia? No, something else, sometimes an inexplicable sadness. – Ingeborg Bachmann, from “Word for Word,” Three Paths to the Lake: Stories (Holmes & Meier, 1989)
Always to live among words, whether one wants to or not,always to be alive, full of words about life,as if words were alive, as if life meant words. But it’s otherwise, believe me.Between a word and a thingyou only encounter yourself,lying between each as if next to someone ill,never able to get to either,tasting a… Continue reading Ingeborg Bachmann
I live my life in growing orbitswhich 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… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
[You, neighbor god, if sometimes in the night] You, neighbor god, if sometimes in the nightI rouse you with loud knocking, I do soonly because I seldom hear you breatheand know: you are alone.And should you need a drink, no one is thereto reach it to you, groping in the dark.Always I hearken. Give but… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
Who has not sat, afraid, before his heart’s curtain? – Rainer Maria Rilke, from “The Fourth Elegy,” Duino Elegies. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. (Vintage; Bilingual edition October 6, 2009) Originally published 1923.
…your smile more enduring, when it illuminates your sorrow. — Rainer Maria Rilke, The Sonnets To Orpheus. (W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition April 17, 2006) Originally published 1922.
Oh trees of life, when will your winter come?We’re not in tune. Not like migratory birds.Outmoded, late, in haste, we force ourselves on windswhich let us down upon indifferent ponds.Though we’ve had to learn how flowering is fading,somewhere lions still roam,unaware, in their majesty, of any weakness. — Rainer Maria Rilke, from the “Fourth Elegy,”… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
You see, I want a lot.Maybe I want it all:the darkness of each endless fall,the shimmering light of each ascent. — Rainer Maria Rilke, from “Du Siehst, ich will viel,” Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, trans. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy (Riverhead Books, 1996)To speak a thing one can’t conceive.
There will be a book that includes these pages,and she who takes it in her handswill sit staring at it a long time,until she feels that she is being heldand you are writing. — Rainer Maria Rilke, from “Du dunkeInder Grund, gelduldig erträgst du die Mauern,” Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, trans.… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
The Vale of Soul-Making 