Poet's Corner: four by Rainer Maria Rilke

Four selections by Rainer Maria Rilke.

The Drunkard's Song by Rainer Maria Rilke [this translation is by Linda Marshall; the one I I read, and the three section below, were translated by Stephen Mitchell]

it wasn’t in me. it went in and out.
I wanted to hold it. it held, with the wine.
(I no longer know what it was.)
then wine held this and that for me
till I could never leave him completely.
I am a fool.

now I play in his game and he shakes me out,
looking at me disdainfully and perhaps today
he will lose me to death – that brute!
if he wins me, the dirtiest card in the pack,
he’ll use me to scratch his scabs
and throw me away into the muck.

Rose, oh pure contradiction by Rainer Maria Rilke

Rose, oh pure contradiction, joy
of being No-one's sleep under so many lids.

[Now it is time that gods came walking out] by Rainer Maria Rilke

Now it is time that gods came walking out
of lived-in Things…
Time that they came and knocked down every wall
inside my house. New page. Only the wind
from such a turning could be strong enough
to toss the air as a shovel tosses dirt:
a fresh-turned field of breath. O gods, gods!
who used to come so often and are still
asleep in the Things around us, who serenely
rise and at wells that we can only guess at
splash icy water on your necks and faces,
and lightly add your restedness to what seems
already filled to bursting: our full lives.
Once again let it be your morning, gods.
We keep repeating. You alone are source.
With you the world arises, and your dawn
gleams on each crack and crevice of our failure…

For the sake of a single poem by Rainer Maria Rilke

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