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

Wie ergreift uns der Vogelschrei.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Wie ergreift uns der Vogelschrei....
Irgendein einmal erschaffenes Schreien.
Aber die Kinder schon, spielend im Freien,
schreien an veirklichen Schreien vorbei.

Schreien den Zufall. In Zwischenräume
dieses, des Weltraums, (in welchen der heile
Vogelschrei eingeht, wie Menschen in Träume —)
treiben sie ihre, des Kreischens, Keile.

Wehe, wo sind wir? Immer noch freier,
wie die losgerissenen Drachen
jagen wir halbhoch, mit Rändern von Lachen,

[windig zerfetzten. —]1 Ordne die Schreier,
singender Gott! [dass sie rauschend erwachen,]1
tragend als Strömung das Haupt und die Leier.

H. Birtwistle sets line 12-13

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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. 26

See other settings of this text.


Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2023-08-05
Line count: 14
Word count: 86

[No title]
 (Sung text for setting by E. Moe)
 Matches base text
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
How deeply the cry of a bird can move us
 [ ... ]
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 Eric Moe (b. 1954), no title, 1997 [ soprano, oboe, string quartet and piano ], from Sonnets to Orpheus, no. 7

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. 26
    • Go to the text page.

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This text was added to the website: 2023-12-14
Line count: 14
Word count: 106

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