by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
Translation by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
Livet ditt er ikke denne bratte timen
Language: Norwegian (Bokmål) after the German (Deutsch)
Livet ditt er ikke denne bratte timen
der vi ser deg haste av sted.
Du er et tre, som skygger for deg
du er bare én av dine mange munner;
den, som skal tie først.
Du er hvilen mellom to toner
som ikke harmonerer:
for dødstonen vil stige -
men i dette dunkle intervall
forenes de, skjelvende.
Und das Lied bleibt schön
About the headline (FAQ)
Note: This is not a literal translation.Text Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [an adaptation] [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "Mein Leben ist", written 1899, appears in Das Stundenbuch, in 1. Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben , no. 20, first published 1905
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Synne Skouen (b. 1950), "Livet ditt er ikke denne bratte timen", 2010 [ bass-baritone, chorus, string quartet ], from Hysj – Bla stille om – Fra Rilke til Dahle, NB noter [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, a translation by Robert Bly (b. 1926) , "My life is not this steeply sloping hour", 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, Larry Klein, Robert Benford Lepley.
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , "Ma vie n’est pas cette heure abrupte" ; composed by Antoine Tisné.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
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Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2023-10-04
Line count: 11
Word count: 61