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by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

Die Strasse...
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Die Strasse war zu leer
its emptiness had gotten bored
pulled my steps out from under my feet
und klappte mit ihm herum
drüben und da
wie mit einem Holzschuh...
the woman 
die Frau erschrak und hob sich aus sich ab
zu schnel 
zu heftig so daß das Gesicht 
she pulled out of herself so quickly,
so daß das Gesicht in den zwei Händen blieb...

Ich fing an, leise zu gehen

I could see it lyig their
seine hohle Form
it cost me an indescribable effort
to stay with those two hands
not to look at what had been torn out of them

Ich fing an leise zu gehen...

Mir graute ein Gesicht von innen zu sehen
But I was much more afraid of that bare wounded head
waiting there
vor dem bloßen wunden Kopf ohne Gesicht

Ich lerne sehen
Ja, ich fange an
habe ich es schon gesagt?

Text Authorship:

  • by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926) [author's text not yet checked 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 Joseph Butch Rovan , "Die Strasse..." [ voice ], from Vis-à-vis, no. 5, note: performance also includes real-time electronics and interactive video [sung text checked 1 time]

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

This text was added to the website: 2023-08-16
Line count: 26
Word count: 149

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