Two poems by Rilke

Wally Swist

Der Magier

Er ruft es an. Es schrickt zusamm und steht.
Was steht? Das Andre; alles, was nicht er ist,
wird Wesen. Und das ganze Wesen dreht
ein raschgemachtes Antlitz her, das mehr ist.

Oh Magier, halt aus, halt aus, halt aus!
Schaff Gleichgewicht. Steh ruhig auf der Waage,
damit sie einerseits dich und das Haus
und druben jenes Angewachsne trage.

Entscheidung fallt. Die Bindung stellt sich her.
Er weiB, der Anrug uberwog das Weigern.
Doch sein Gesicht, wie mit gedeckten Zeigern,
hat Mitternacht. Gebunden ist auch er.

The Magician

He calls it forth. It recoils and stands.
What stands? The Other; everything that is not him
becomes being. And the whole being turns
a quickly formed face toward him, which is more.

Oh Magician, hold on, hold on, hold on!
Create balance. Stand calmly on the scales,
so that they bear on one side you and the house
and on the other that which has grown there.

The decision is made. The connection is established.
He knows the urging outweighed the refusal.
But his face, as if with covered hands,
shows midnight. He too is bound.

     Muzot, February 12, 2024


Irrlichter

Wir haben einen alten Verkehr
mit den Lichtern im Moor.
Sie kommen mir wie GorBtanten vor . . .
Ich entdecke mehr und meht

zwischen ihnen und mir den Familienzug,
den keine Gewalt unterdruckt:
diesen Schwung, diesen Sprung, diesen Ruck, diesen Bug,
der den andern nicht gluckt.

Auch ich bin dort, wo die Wege nicht gehn,
im Schwaden, den mancher mied,
und ich habe mich oft verloschen sehn
unter dem Augenlid.

Will-o'-the-Wisps

We have an old connection
with the lights in the moor.
They seem to me like great-aunts . . .
I discover more and more

between them and me the family trait,
which no force can suppress:
this swing, this leap, this jerk, this bend,
which others do not possess.

I too am there, where the paths do not go,
in the mist that many avoided,
and I have often seen myself extinguished
beneath my eyelid.

     Muzot, mid-February, 1924


René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Rilke is appreciated as one of the most lyrical German-language poets. He wrote one novel in lyrical prose, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge [Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge], but mostly wrote verse, although he is also known for his several collections of his voluminous correspondence. Rilke’s work is often considered to be mystical, and his imagery often focuses on the challenge of being in communion with the ineffable— especially in what W. H. Auden termed “the age of anxiety”. Rilke is also known for his contributions to French literature for his having written over 400 poems, originally written in French, and dedicated to the canton of Valais, in Switzerland. However, he is more renowned for his collections of poetry, written toward the end of his life, Duino Elegies [Duineser Elegien] and Sonnets to Orpheus [Die Sonette an Orpheus], as well as the posthumously collected Letters to a Young Poet [Briefe an einen jungen Dichter].

Wally Swist

Wally Swist’s new books include Aperture (Kelsay Books), poems regarding caregiving his spouse through Alzheimer’s, and If You’re the Dreamer, I’m the Dream: Selected Translations from Rilke’s Book of Hours (Finishing Line Press). Poems, essays, and translations have appeared in Chicago Quarterly Review, Commonweal, Healing Muse, La Piccioletta Barca, Montreal Review, North American Review, Pensive, Poetry London, Rattle, Upstreet and Your Impossible Voice. Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012) was selected by Yuseff Komunyakaa as co-winner of the 2011 Crab Orchard Open Poetry Competition. He was also the winner of the Ex Ophidia Press Poetry Prize in 2018 for A Bird Who Seems to Know Me. Books of nonfiction include Singing for Nothing: Selected Nonfiction as Literary Memoir (Brooklyn, NY: The Operating System, 2018) and On Beauty: Essays, Reviews, Fiction, and Plays (New York & Lisbon: Adelaide Books, 2018). Wild Rose Bush: The Life of Mary and Other Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke was selected as an honorable mention in the 2025 Stephen Mitchell Prize for Excellence in Translation sponsored by Green Linden Press. Bainbridge Island Press will be publishing the most recent collection of his poetry, Discovering What to Say.

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