(original review, 2009)


Da neigt sich die Stunde und rührt mich an
mit klarem, metallenem Schlag:
mir zittern die Sinne. Ich fühle: ich kann -
und ich fasse den plastischen Tag.

Nichts war noch vollendet, eh ich es erschaut,
ein jedes Werden stand still.
Meine Blicke sind reif, und wie eine Braut
kommt jedem das Ding, das er will.

Nichts ist mir zu klein, und ich lieb es trotzdem
und mal es auf Goldgrund und groß
und halte es hoch, und ich weiß nicht wem
löst es die Seele los...


In “Das Stundenbuch” von Rainer Maria Rilke.

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

This is a fiction book based on fact and is in fact less fiction than many non-fiction books I've read over time (many of them extrapolate conversations etc). It's a pretty mundane life of a man from the Netherlands who becomes a tea and quinine planter in Indonesia.  His life is full of ups and downs and things become complicated when family, business and politics are mixed.  Overall I was fairly underwhelmed and had to almost force myself to go back to it.  I mean it was interesting to a degree but not really my bag.

Published 2005.

One of main reasons for having enrolled in German classes was just to be able to read Rilke in the original. That's how much I loved him. I still do. “Das Buch der Bilder” (The book of Images/O Livro das Imagens) was the book that showed me, back in the day, I still had a long road ahead me before I could say I was able to read Rilke in German. Since then I’ve read lots of translations and also the original many times over. The bilingual translation to which I keep coming back is the one I just re-read, Maria João Costa Pereira’s. This is the one that I always close at hand me (I’m not sure which translation I like best when it comes to English; Stephen Mitchell's translation, which for some reason unknown to me is the most famous Rilke translation is just so uninspired and dull). I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. “Understanding” Rilke first-hand, so to speak, needs a strong command of German. There’s no way around it. Those who feel like they have their whole life ahead of them to reflect and ponder and wait for the questions to reveal their true meanings and for the fruit to ripen on the tree-- as opposed to the adult who feel like they have no time to ponder, have already wasted the years as it is, and would really, really like to just grab the fruit and run with it however green and sour it may be. A friend of mine rejects Rilke, saying he’s phony. I don't get that feeling at all. I believe, it’s today's generation of so-called modern poets that strike me as somehow faking it. I think Rilke's spirituality, especially as expressed in “The Book of Images”, “Das Stunden-Buch” (The Book of Hours) and “Geschichte vom lieben Gott” (Stories of God), is rather simple and heartfelt.

If you're into Poetry and Rilke in particular, read the rest of the review on my blog.

Und vielleicht sind die Geschlechter verwandter, als man meint, und die große Erneuerung der Welt wird vielleicht darin bestehen, dass Mann und Mädchen sich, befreit von allen Irrgefühlen und Unlüsten, nicht als Gegensätze suchen werden, sondern als Geschwister und Nachbarn und sich zusammentun werden als Menschen, um einfach, ernst und geduldig das schwere Geschlecht, das ihnen auferlegt ist, gemeinsam zu tragen.

 

Rainer Maria Rilke zu Beginn des 20 Jahrhunderts. 

 

 

Davon sollte sich manch ein Internet - "Feminist" sich eine große, große Scheibe abschneiden.