{"id":8127,"date":"2022-09-09T08:27:45","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T15:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=8127"},"modified":"2022-09-09T08:27:45","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T15:27:45","slug":"rainer-maria-rilke-silent-friend-of-many-distances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2022\/09\/09\/rainer-maria-rilke-silent-friend-of-many-distances\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainer Maria Rilke – Silent friend of many distances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silent friend of many distances, feel
\nby Rainer Maria Rilke<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Stephen Mitchell<\/font><\/p>\n

Silent friend of many distances, feel
\nhow your breath enlarges all of space.
\nLet your presence ring out like a bell
\ninto the night. What feeds upon your face<\/p>\n

grows mighty from the nourishment thus offered.
\nMove through transformation, out and in.
\nWhat is the deepest loss that you have suffered?
\nIf drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine.<\/p>\n

In this immeasurable darkness, be the power
\nthat rounds your senses in their magic ring,
\nthe sense of their mysterious encounter.<\/p>\n

And if the earthly no longer knows your name,
\nwhisper to the silent earth: I\u2019m flowing.
\nTo the flashing water say: I am.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry<\/a>, by Stephen Mitchell<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by switon.michal<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

It has been a while we had a poem by Rilke.<\/p>\n

This is one to reread and savor, I think. Even before we let the meaning of the poem seep into the awareness, the imagery and language draws us into an open state, doesn\u2019t it? Lines like\u2013<\/p>\n

Silent friend of many distances, feel
\nhow your breath enlarges all of space.<\/p>\n

Let your presence ring out like a bell
\ninto the night.<\/p>\n

Move through transformation, out and in.<\/p>\n

whisper to the silent earth: I\u2019m flowing.
\nTo the flashing water say: I am.<\/i><\/p>\n

I basically reproduced two-thirds of the poem there, didn\u2019t I? That\u2019s always a sign of how enamored I am with a poem.<\/p>\n

With all its beauty, this poem is a bit haunting. The poet keeps referring to night and darkness. The spaciousness of night, its mystery, the limit of one\u2019s senses. Those final lines put us in the position of being a thing unknown, even to ourselves.<\/p>\n

But this doesn\u2019t seem to me a poem of fear or loss, but of encounter. Reading these lines, I feel invited to participate in the great unknown mystery of existence, including my own existence. When we have come to feel trapped by a mundane, too familiar world, that\u2019s a sign that we have forgotten just how immense and terrifyingly beautiful reality is. We need to retrain our eyes to see the spaces between and the secrets behind. We need to remember what it is to be overwhelmed by our own being. And to this ungraspable, always changing world, we can still find it in ourselves to say: I am.<\/p>\n

Let your presence ring out like a bell
\ninto the night.<\/i><\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Rainer Maria Rilke<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nAhead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Soul is Here for its Own Joy: Sacred Poems from Many Cultures<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nRilke\u2019s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nIn Praise of Mortality: Rilke\u2019s Duino Elegies & Sonnets to Orpheus<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"Rainer<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nRainer Maria Rilke<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Germany (1875 \u2013 1926) Timeline<\/a>
\nSecular or Eclectic<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

More poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Silent friend of many distances, feel by Rainer Maria Rilke English version by Stephen Mitchell Silent friend of many distances, feel how your breath enlarges all of space. Let your presence ring out like a bell into the night. What feeds upon your face grows mighty from the nourishment thus offered. Move through transformation, out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[864,2487,72,1163,2338,70,1289],"class_list":["post-8127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-darkness","tag-distance","tag-german-poetry","tag-mystery","tag-name","tag-rainer-maria-rilke","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8128,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8127\/revisions\/8128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}