Rilke Rawks

here's the thing about rilke: he wrote so much good stuff that
it's impossible to play favorites or to choose just one poem that speaks for his entire body of work.
nevertheless, "the swan" is pretty much the perfect poem to me. it involves what i consider to be the greatest of all literary
symbols: the swan (see also the mythology behind leda and the swan and tennyson's "tithonus"); evolution; and finally, imagery of water
which adds a smooth feeling of descent after the awkward pace of the first two short stanzas. this poem is a veritable
trifecta of literary loveliness. translated into iambic pentameter - don't ask me how translators do that - rilke proves that
the standard metre of the english language is a mere trifle to his brilliant pate. it's poetry like this that makes me feel
like life is worth living on even the darkest of days when people like nora roberts seem to pervade bestseller lists.



Rainer Maria Rilke

"The Swan"

This laboring through what is still undone,
as though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way,
is like the akward walking of the swan.

And dying-to let go, no longer feel
the solid ground we stand on every day-
is like anxious letting himself fall

into waters, which receive him gently
and which, as though with reverence and joy,
draw back past him in streams on either side;
while, infinitely silent and aware,
in his full majesty and ever more
indifferent, he condescends to glide.


Translated by Stephen Mitchell