Three Interior Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke

Translations © by Grant Hicks

Song Cycle by Jake Heggie (b. 1961)

View original-language texts alone: Trois poèmes intérieurs de Rainer Maria Rilke

1. Portrait intérieure  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: French (Français) 
Ce ne sont pas des souvenirs 
qui, en moi, t'entretiennent ; 
tu n'es pas non plus mienne 
par la force d'un beau désir. 

Ce qui te rend présente, 
c'est le détour ardent 
qu'une tendresse lente 
décrit dans mon propre sang. 

Je suis sans besoin 
de te voir apparaître ; 
il m'a suffi de naître 
pour te perdre un peu moins.

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Confirmed with The Complete French Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, Saint Paul: Greywolf Press, 1986, Page 174.


by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
1. Interior Portrait
Language: English 
It isn't memories
that keep you alive for me;
nor are you mine
by dint of a beautiful desire.

What keeps you with me 
is the ardent detour 
that a slow tenderness 
describes in my own blood.

I have no need 
to see you appear;
being born was enough for me
to lose you a little less.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Translations of titles:
"Ce ne sont pas des souvenirs" = "It isn't memories"
"Il m'a suffi de naître" = "Being born was enough for me"
"Portrait intérieur" = "Interior Portrait"
"Portrait intérieure" = "Interior Portrait"



This text was added to the website: 2025-08-08
Line count: 12
Word count: 57

Translation © by Grant Hicks
2. La Porteuse de fleurs  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: French (Français) 
Elles ne sont plus à moi, mes mains,
elles sont à ces fleurs que je viens de cueillir ;
puissent-elles, ces fleurs à l'imagination si pure,
inventer un autre être à ces mains
qui ne sont plus miennes. Alors,
obéissante, je me mettrai à côté de lui,
à côté de cet être, curieuse de mes mains anciennes
et je ne le quitterai plus l'écoutant
de tout mon cœur, avant qu'il ne me dise :
ô Légère.

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Confirmed with Poèmes français. Vergers. Les Roses. Les Fenêtres. Carnet de Poche. Poèmes épars, Paris: Paul Hartmann, ed., 1935, page 123.


by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
2. The Flower Bearer
Language: English 
My hands are no longer my own,
they belong to these flowers I've just picked;
let them contrive, these flowers with such a pure imagination,
to invent another being with these hands
that are no longer mine.  Then,
obediently, I will place myself by his side,
by the side of that being, curious about my former hands
and I will not stray from him, listening to him
with all my heart, until he says to me:
"O deft woman."

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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This text was added to the website: 2025-08-13
Line count: 10
Word count: 79

Translation © by Grant Hicks
3. Epilogue: C'est pour t'avoir vue  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: French (Français) 
C'est pour t'avoir vue
penchée à la fenêtre ultime,
que j'ai compris, que j'ai bu
tout mon abîme.

En me montrant tes bras
tendus vers la nuit,
tu as fait que, depuis,
ce qui en moi te quitta,
me quitte, me fuit...

Ton geste, fût-il la preuve
d'un adieu si grand,
qu'il me changea en vent,
qu'il me versa dans le fleuve ?

Text Authorship:

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Confirmed with Poèmes français. Vergers. Les Roses. Les Fenêtres. Carnet de Poche. Poèmes épars, Paris: Paul Hartmann, ed., 1935, page 106.


by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
3. Epilogue: It's Because I Saw You
Language: English 
It's because I saw you
leaning out of the last window,
that I've understood, that I've drunk
my whole abyss.

By showing me your arms
stretched out toward the night,
you've made it so that, ever since,
the part of me that left you
is leaving me, is fleeing me...

Was your gesture the proof 
of a farewell so grand
that it turned me to wind,
that it spilled me into the river?

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
    Contact: 

Based on:

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Translations of titles:
"Epilogue: C'est pour t'avoir vue" = "Epilogue: It's Because I Saw You"
"Les fenêtres" = "The Windows"



This text was added to the website: 2025-08-13
Line count: 13
Word count: 73

Translation © by Grant Hicks