by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
Translation by James Blair Leishman (1902 - 1963)
O erst dann, wenn der Flug
Language: German (Deutsch)
O erst dann, wenn der Flug nicht mehr um seinetwillen wird in die Himmelsstillen steigen, sich selber genug, um in lichten Profilen, als das Gerät, das gelang, Liebling der Winde zu spielen, sicher, schwenkend und schlank, — erst, wenn ein reines Wohin wachsender Apparate Knabenstolz überwiegt, wird, überstürzt von Gewinn, jener den Fernen Genahte sein, was er einsam erfliegt.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Die Sonette an Orpheus 1, no. 23 [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):
- by Λrthvr , "Sonett XXIII", 2019 [ voice ] [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, a translation by James Blair Leishman (1902 - 1963) , "Only" ; composed by Morton Feldman.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2023-08-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 59
Only
Language: English after the German (Deutsch)
Only when flight shall soar not for its own sake only up into heavens lonely silence, and be no more merely the lightly profiling, proudly successful tool, playmate of winds, beguiling time there, careless and cool: only when some pure Whither outweighs boyish insistence on the achieved machine with who, has journed thither be, in that fading distance all that his flight has been.
Text Authorship:
- by James Blair Leishman (1902 - 1963), "Only" [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Die Sonette an Orpheus 1, no. 23
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Morton Feldman (b. 1926), "Only", 1947, copyright © 1976 [ voice ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2023-09-10
Line count: 14
Word count: 64