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by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
Translation © by Darrel Hale

O ihr Zärtlichen, tretet zuweilen
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE
O ihr Zärtlichen, tretet zuweilen
in den Atem, der euch nicht meint,
laßt ihn an eueren Wangen sich teilen,
hinter euch zittert er, wieder vereint.

O ihr Seligen, o ihr Heilen,
die ihr der Anfang der Herzen scheint.
Bogen der Pfeile und Ziele von Pfeilen,
ewiger glänzt euer Lächeln verweint.

Fürchtet euch nicht zu leiden, die Schwere,
gebt sie zurück an der Erde Gewicht:
schwer sind die Berge. Schwer sind die Meere.

Selbst die als Kinder ihr pflanztet, die Bäume, 
wurden zu schwer längst; ihr trüget sie nicht.
Aber die Lüfte... aber die Räume...

H. Birtwistle sets line 14

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Die Sonette an Orpheus 1, no. 4

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Knut W. Barde) , "Sonnet to Orpheus", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 94

Rilke Sonnets to Orpheus ‑ Part One, Sonnet IV
 (Sung text for setting by J. Brandon)
 Matches base text
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
enter the breathing
 [ ... ]
This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

Composition:

    Set to music by Jenni Brandon (b. 1977), "Rilke Sonnets to Orpheus - Part One, Sonnet IV", 2019, copyright © 2019 [ mezzo-soprano, bassoon, harp ], from Ahead of All Parting, no. 3, JW Pepper

Text Authorship:

  • by Darrel Hale , "Part One, Sonnet IV", copyright © 2018

Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Die Sonette an Orpheus 1, no. 4
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view

This text was added to the website: 2023-10-11
Line count: 17
Word count: 93

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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