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by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
Translation © by Robert Bly (b. 1926)
Mein Leben ist nicht diese steile Stunde
Language: German (Deutsch)
Our translations: FRE
Mein Leben ist nicht diese steile Stunde,
darin du mich so eilen siehst.
Ich bin ein Baum vor meinem Hintergrunde,
ich bin nur einer meiner vielen Munde
und jener, welcher sich am frühsten schließt.
Ich bin die Ruhe zwischen zweien Tönen,
die sich nur schlecht aneinander gewöhnen:
denn der Ton Tod will sich erhöhn -
Aber im dunklen Intervall versöhnen
sich beide zitternd.
Und das Lied bleibt schön.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "Mein Leben ist", written 1899, appears in Das Stundenbuch, in 1. Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben , no. 20, first published 1905
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Ma vie n'est pas cette heure abrupte", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-05-19
Line count: 11
Word count: 67
My life is not this steeply sloping hour Matches original text
Language: English after the German (Deutsch)
My life is not this steeply sloping hour in which you see me hurrying. Much stands behind me; I stand before it like a tree; I am only one of my many mouths, and at that, the one that will be still the soonest. I am the rest between two notes, which are somehow always in discord because Death’s note wants to climb over -- but in the dark interval, reconciled, they stay there trembling. And the song goes on, beautiful.
Permission granted for use by the LiederNet Archive stemming from agreement on recording between Mark Abel and Harper and Row.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Composition:
- Set to music by Mark Abel (b. 1948), "My life is not this steeply sloping hour", 2004, published 2004 [ soprano and piano ], from Five Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, no. 2, Oceangoing Music (ASCAP)
Text Authorship:
- by Robert Bly (b. 1926), "My life is not this steeply sloping hour", appears in Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, first published 1981, copyright © by Harper and Row, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "Mein Leben ist", written 1899, appears in Das Stundenbuch, in 1. Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben , no. 20, first published 1905
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2014-02-18
Line count: 13
Word count: 80