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by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
Translation © by Margaret Dows Herter Norton (1894 - 1985)

Da stieg ein Baum. O reine Übersteigung!
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  FRE
Da stieg ein Baum. O reine Übersteigung!
O Orpheus singt! O hoher Baum im Ohr.
Und alles schwieg. Doch selbst in der verschweigung
ging neuer Anfang, Wink und Wandlung vor.

Tiere aus Stille drangen aus dem klaren
gelösten wald von Lager und Genist;
und da ergab sich, daß sie nicht aus List
und nicht aus Angst in sich so leise waren,

sondern aus Hören. Brüllen, Schrei, Geröhr
schien klein in ihren Herzen. Und wo eben
kaum eine Hütte war, dies zu empfangen,

ein Unterschlupf aus dunkelstem Verlangen
mit einem Zugang, dessen Pfosten beben, --
da schufst du ihnen Tempel im Gehör.

H. Birtwistle sets line 1

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

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

See other settings of this text.

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

  • 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: 2009-12-18
Line count: 14
Word count: 100

Sonnet #1
 (Sung text for setting by G. Perle)
 Matches original text
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
There rose a tree. O pure transcendency!
 [ ... ]
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 George Perle (1915 - 2009), "Sonnet #1", first performed 1975 [ chorus a cappella ], from Songs of Praise and Lamentation: Sonnets to Orpheus, no. 1

Text Authorship:

  • by Margaret Dows Herter Norton (1894 - 1985), appears in Translations from the Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, copyright ©

Based on:

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

See other settings of this text.

This text was added to the website: 2009-12-18
Line count: 14
Word count: 109

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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