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by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
Translation © by Mathias Rüegg (b. 1952)

Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE
Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen,
die sich über die Dinge ziehn.
Ich werde den letzten vielleicht nicht vollbringen,
aber versuchen will ich ihn.

Ich kreise um Gott, um den uralten Turm,
und ich kreise jahrtausendelang;
und ich weiß noch nicht: bin ich ein Falke, ein Sturm
oder ein großer Gesang.

T. Lukasheva sets stanza 2

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Rainer Maria Rilke, Werke, kommentierte Ausgabe in vier Bänden, Band 1 Gedichte 1895 bis 1910, herausgegeben von Manfred Engel und Ulrich Fülleborn, Frankfurt am Main und Leipzig: Insel Verlag, 1996, page 157.


Text Authorship:

  • by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen", written 1899, appears in Das Stundenbuch, in 1. Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben , no. 2, first published 1905

See other settings of this text.

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

  • ENG English (Walter A. Aue) , "I'm living my life in spiraling gyres", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Je vis ma vie en cercles croissants", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2008-05-19
Line count: 8
Word count: 52

Am I a Falcon, a Storm or a Great Song
 (Sung text for setting by M. Rüegg)
 Matches base text
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
I live my life in growing circles
 [ ... ]
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 Mathias Rüegg (b. 1952), "Am I a Falcon, a Storm or a Great Song", first performed 2021 [ voice and band ], from my poet’s love, no. 13, sung by Lia Pale on album: ‎my poet’s love, Universal Music Austria (Soulfood)

Text Authorship:

  • by Mathias Rüegg (b. 1952), copyright ©

Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen", written 1899, appears in Das Stundenbuch, in 1. Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben , no. 2, first published 1905
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view

This text was added to the website: 2023-11-09
Line count: 8
Word count: 57

Gentle Reminder

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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