by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)
Translation © by Anita Barrows and by Joanna Macy
Dein allererstes Wort war: Licht
Language: German (Deutsch)
Dein allererstes Wort war: Licht: da ward die Zeit. Dann schwiegst du lange. Dein zweites Wort ward Mensch und bange (wir dunkeln noch in seinem Klange), und wieder sinnt dein Angesicht. Ich aber will dein drittes nicht. Ich bete nachts oft: Sei der Stumme, der wachsend in Gebärden bleibt und den der Geist im Traume treibt, daß er des Schweigens schwere Summe in Stirnen und Gebirge schreibt. Sei du die Zuflucht vor dem Zorne, der das Unsagbare verstieß. Es wurde Nacht im Paradies: sei du der Hüter mit dem Horne, und man erzählt nur, daß er blies.
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Rainer Maria Rilke, Das Stunden-Buch, Leipzig : Insel-Verlag, 1918, p.31
Text Authorship:
- by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Das Stundenbuch, in 1. Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben , no. 44 [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 Martin Dörnberg (1920 - 2013), "Dein allererstes Wort", 1973/1986 [ soprano, piano or mixed chorus ], from 6 Lieder nach Rilkes Stundenbuch, no. 3, Manuskript 1986. Freie Umgestaltung der Chorfassung von 1973. Gedichte aus Vom mönchischen Leben [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, a translation by Anita Barrows , copyright © and by Joanna Macy , copyright © ; composed by Brad Mehldau.
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2023-08-19
Line count: 16
Word count: 97
Your first word was light
Language: English after the German (Deutsch)
Your first word was light [ ... ]
This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.
Text Authorship:
- by Anita Barrows , copyright © [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
- by Joanna Macy , copyright © [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 Das Stundenbuch, in 1. Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben , no. 44
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Brad Mehldau (b. 1970), "Your first word was light", first performed 2005 [ voice and piano ], from Seven Songs from Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
This text was added to the website: 2023-08-19
Line count: 14
Word count: 91