RAINER-MARIA-RILKE

1875-1926

 

 

for comparison

Six translations of a poem from his

Book of Hours (Stundenbuch)

1899-1903

 

Du Dunkelheit, aus der ich stamme, ich liebe dich mehr als die Flamme, welche die Welt begrenzt, indem sie glänzt für irgendeinen Kreis, aus dem heraus kein Wesen von ihr weiß. Aber die Dunkelheit hält alles an sich: Gestalten und Flammen, Tiere und mich, wie sie’s errafft, Menschen und Mächte – Und es kann sein: eine große Kraft rührt sich in meiner Nachbarschaft. Ich glaube an Nächte.

(Literal translation) O darkness, from which/whence I spring I love you more than the fire/flames that encircle/fence/ the world/earth for the fire encircles/encloses everyone / humankind to close you off/exclude you from their sight. But darkness draws everything to it(self) shapes and flames and animals and myself How it enfolds them all man and might / people and powers It may be that a great power/energy/force/ a powerful presence moves in my vicinity. I believe in Nights. Night is (nights are) my faith/certainty.

 

1.
a version by

David Whyte

You darkness from which I come,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence out the world,
for the fire makes a circle
for everyone
so that no one sees you anymore.
But darkness holds it all:
the shape and the flame,
the animal and myself,
how it holds them,
all powers, all sight —

and it is possible: its great strength
is breaking into my body.
I have faith in the night.

 

 

2.
a version by

Robert Bly

You darkness, that I come from,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes
a circle of light for everyone,
and then no one outside learns of you.

But the darkness pulls in everything:
shapes and fires, animals and myself,
how easily it gathers them! —
powers and people —
and it is possible a great energy
is moving near me.

I have faith in nights.

 

 

3.
a version by

Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

You, darkness, of whom I am born —

I love you more than the flame
that limits the world
to the circle it illumines
and excludes all the rest.

But the darkness embraces everything:
shapes and shadows, creatures and me,
people, nations — just as they are.

It lets me imagine
a great presence stirring beside me.

I believe in the night.

 

 

4.
a version by

Annemarie S. Kidder

You darkness whence I came,
I love you more than the light
which marks the world's seam
by her gleaming for some orbit
apart from which
no-one knows who she is.

But the darkness holds it all in:
figures and flames, beasts and me,
whatever it may catch,
humans and rights -

It is possible that there might
be moving a power right next to me.

I believe in nights.

 

 

5.
a version by

Susan Ranson

Darkness of night, out of which I came,
I love you more than the flame
that circumscribes the world
by lending gleam,
who knows, to an orbit's circle,
beyond whose bounds we come up against the unknown.

Darkness confines all things embraced tight,
figures, flames, animals, me,
pulled into her sphere:
powers, people.

And as the senses flare it could be
that sheer force stirs near.

I believe in the night.

 

 

6.
a version by

Anthony Weir

I come from darkness,
the beloved, more nourishingly
lovely than the flaming light
which makes the world a prison
for whom it renders blind.

Darkness contains everything:
form, flame, being, beast and mind;
absorbs all panoply and might,
enfolds mankind.

I feel a power, a penetrating
presence approach me:
my faith inheres in night.

 

 

>> Two poems by Hans Magnus Enzensberger >>