We will continue our Duino meetings with Elegy # 5.
If you are weary of death and dying ... take a look at this counterbalance to Rilke's take on core human experience: a sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning - opening verses in the Sonnets from the Portuguese. Rilke was deeply impressed by this collection and while he could not share Elizabeth Barrett's perspective, he was impressed by her confident and masterful writing style. So much so that he translated the entire book into German.
I thought once how Theocritus has sung
Of the sweet years, the dear wished for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me. Straightaway I was 'ware,
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;
And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,-
"Guess now who holds thee?" - "Death," I said. But, there,
The silver answer rang, - "Not Death, but Love."
Join me again for another deep dive into the Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the poet and the time is very ripe to revisit what is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest pieces of writing to come from Europe. For it is very Continental and is a crowning glory of what is best in Western intellectual and artistic quest of the past 3000 years or so. Together with the Ancients, Dante, Milton, and Shakespeare, Rilke is the fulcrum on which so much of modern writing turns and pivots.
I am relying primarily on David Young translation, because it is admirably sensitive to the modern Anglo linguistic demand. For the backup, I recommend the Mitchell translation - this is more 19th century informed. We are going to read out of the Young during the meeting and reference Mitchell only if needed.
We are going to live read the text line by line from start to finish and dive into conversation about what the poet is expressing. Do research, read before the meeting, and so on.
Duino Elgies is a demanding read. It is one of those unequalled flights of poetic fancy: inspired, wise, archaic, genuine, and mysterious. Proceed accordingly.
We will read all the Elegies over as many meetings at it takes to complete the text.
