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by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
Translation © by Stephen Mitchell (b. 1943)

Sei allem Abschied voran, als wäre er...
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Sei allem Abschied voran, als wäre er hinter
dir, wie der Winter, der eben geht.
Denn unter Wintern ist einer so endlos Winter,
dass, überwinternd, dein Herz überhaupt übersteht.

Sei immer tot in Eurydike [—, singender steige,]1
preisender steige zurück in den reinen Bezug.
Hier, unter Schwindenden, sei, im Reiche der Neige,
sei ein klingendes Glas, das sich im Klang schon zerschlug.

Sei — und wisse zugleich des Nicht-Seins Bedingung,
den unendlichen Grund deiner innigen Schwingung,
dass du sie völlig vollziehst dieses einzige Mal.

Zudemgebrauchten sowohl, wie zum dumpfen und stummen
Vorrat der vollen Natur, den unsäglichen Summen,
zähle dich jubelnd hinzu und vernichte die Zahl.

H. Birtwistle sets line 5

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Sonette an Orpheus, Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, 1923

1 omitted by Birtwistle.

Text Authorship:

  • by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Die Sonette an Orpheus 2, no. 13

See other settings of this text.


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2023-08-05
Line count: 14
Word count: 107

Lento (Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus II, 13)
 (Sung text for setting by J. Harbison)
 Matches base text
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were
 [ ... ]
This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

Composition:

    Set to music by John H. Harbison (b. 1938), "Lento (Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus II, 13)", 2008 [ baritone, mezzo-soprano and orchestra ], from Symphony No. 5, no. 4

Text Authorship:

  • by Stephen Mitchell (b. 1943), copyright ©

Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Die Sonette an Orpheus 2, no. 13
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view

This text was added to the website: 2023-08-31
Line count: 14
Word count: 134

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