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Ihr vielen unbestürmten Städte, habt ihr euch nie den Feind ersehnt? O dass er euch belagert hätte ein langes schwankendes Jahrzehnt. Bis ihr ihn trostlos und in Trauern, bis dass ihr hungernd ihn ertrugt; er liegt wie Landschaft vor den Mauern, denn also weiß er auszudauern um jene, die er heimgesucht. Schaut aus vom Rande eurer Dächer da lagert er und wird nicht matt und wird nicht weniger und schwächer und schickt nicht Droher und Versprecher und Überreder in die Stadt. Er ist der große Mauerbrecher, der eine stumme Arbeit hat.
Authorship:
- by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "Ihr vielen unbestürmten Städte" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- [ None yet in the database ]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, a translation by Robert Bly (b. 1926) , "All of you undisturbed cities", appears in Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, first published 1981, copyright © by Harper and Row, (re)printed on this website with kind permission ; composed by Mark Abel.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2014-02-18
Line count: 16
Word count: 91
All of you undisturbed cities, haven’t you ever longed for the Enemy? I’d like to see you besieged by him for ten endless and ground-shaking years. Until you were desperate and mad with suffering; finally in hunger you would feel his weight. He lies outside the walls like a countryside. And he knows very well how to endure longer than the ones he comes to visit. Climb up on your roofs and look out: his camp is there and his morale doesn’t falter, and his numbers do not decrease; he will not grow weaker, and he sends no one into the city to threaten or promise, and no one to negotiate. He is the one who breaks down the walls, and when he works, he works in silence.
Authorship:
- by Robert Bly (b. 1926), "All of you undisturbed cities", appears in Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, first published 1981, copyright © by Harper and Row, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "Ihr vielen unbestürmten Städte"
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Mark Abel (b. 1948), "All of you undisturbed cities", 2004, published 2004 [ soprano and piano ], from Five Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, no. 3, Oceangoing Music (ASCAP)  [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2014-02-18
Line count: 18
Word count: 128