Ooh, and Stephen Mitchell translates. That's recommendation enough for me. I'm going to get a copy. With my Christmas B&N gift certificate that I've been holding onto, waiting for just the right books!
I think you will like Rilke. He is the poet of the great interior spaces waiting inside of us, places people hesitate to explore. Mitchell does an excellent job and I think he's done a volume of collected works that includes The Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus plus selections of New Poems & Book of Hours. Edward Snow is also a good bet for a translation.
"Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were
behind you, like the winter that has just gone by.
For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter
that only by wintering through it all will your heart survive."
Yes, my friend. You got it. We take it with us... it leaves us... or we leave it, more like. Yet it's there to find it again. Ebb and flow, as you say.
It's so wonderful to have someone really connect with my work. Thanks as always, Mike.
Nice Jeff! And you've piqued my curiosity about Rilke.
Thanks Don.
Oh, I think you'll find delight in Rilke. I know I do.
Enjoy.
One of Germany’s greatest lyric poets - endlessly, luminously beautiful lines, like the following from Sonnets to Orpheus:
“And if the earthly no longer knows your name,
whisper to the silent earth: I’m flowing.
To the flashing water say: I am.”
-Stephen Mitchell trans.
Ooh, and Stephen Mitchell translates. That's recommendation enough for me. I'm going to get a copy. With my Christmas B&N gift certificate that I've been holding onto, waiting for just the right books!
I think you will like Rilke. He is the poet of the great interior spaces waiting inside of us, places people hesitate to explore. Mitchell does an excellent job and I think he's done a volume of collected works that includes The Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus plus selections of New Poems & Book of Hours. Edward Snow is also a good bet for a translation.
"Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were
behind you, like the winter that has just gone by.
For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter
that only by wintering through it all will your heart survive."
Sounds like preparing for death? I’m all for it! Yes, the two pieces you’ve shared are beautiful and I am definitely going to read more.
One should never leave the planet without having read Rilke.
Amen to that!
In the hustle and bustle of daily life peace comes from noticing the beauty of nature and being mindful of it. Lovely.
Thanks Monica. Yes, you nailed it - noticing the beauty of nature and being mindful. This is my daily medicine, what gets me through everyday.
Yes, my friend. You got it. We take it with us... it leaves us... or we leave it, more like. Yet it's there to find it again. Ebb and flow, as you say.
It's so wonderful to have someone really connect with my work. Thanks as always, Mike.
And great Watts quote, too!
Great quote by Watts. So Tao!