Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Secular or Eclectic

20th Century

About Rainer Maria Rilke

Timeline (1875 - 1926)

Rainer Maria Rilke, Rainer Maria Rilke poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry, poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, poetry

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English version by
Stephen Mitchell

Original Language
German

Gong

Themes

Birth, Rebirth

Silence

Sound

Wine

Womb

Recommended Books

	Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke, Translated by Stephen Mitchell
	The Best of Rilke: 72 Form-True Verse Translations, Translated by Walter W. Arndt
	The Book of Hours: Prayers to a Lowly God, by Rainer Maria Rilke / Translated by Annemarie Kidder
	Duino Elegies, by Rainer Maria Rilke / Translated by David Young
	Engendering Inspiration: Visionary Strategies in Rilke, Lawrence, and H.D., by Helen Sword

More >>

No longer for ears...: sound
which, like a deeper ear,
hears us, who only seem
to be hearing. Reversal of spaces.
Projection of innermost worlds
into the Open..., temple
before their birth, solution
saturated with gods
that are almost insoluble...: Gong!

Sum of all silence, which
acknowledges itself to itself,
thunderous turning-within
of what is struck dumb in itself,
duration pressed from time passing,
star re-liquefied...: Gong!

You whom one never forgets,
who gave birth to herself in loss,
festival no longer grasped,
wine on invisible lips,
storm in the pillar that upholds,
wanderer's plunge on the path,
our treason, to everything...: Gong!

-- from Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke, Translated by Stephen Mitchell

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Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

About Rainer Maria Rilke

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World