Bruised Books and Rilke

Yes, I succumbed. I admit it. I'd seen his name before, been recommended his poetry, but never took it to heart, not until I had eight minutes to burn. Pre-meeting in downtown Pullman, a wandering spirit took me into Bruised Books where I caved to my desire for all things foreign. A short browse in the language aisle unearthered treasures I couldn't resist: a German-English dictionary, Calvin and Hobbes (in German!), and a volume of Rainer Maria Rilke poetry. I opened the Rilke. One elegy, matched on the opposite page by a masterful English translation, gripped me and wouldn't let go. I was a born-again Rilke fan.

Here is one of my favorites (so far)...translated for all you non-German speakers. If entranced, you might try it in the original language. So much more subtlety, of course, although Stephen Mitchell does fantastically with translation.

The Grownup

All this stood upon her and was the world
and stood upon her with all its fear and grace
as trees stood, growing straight up, imageless
yet wholly image, like the Ark of God,
and solemn, as if imposed upon a race.

And she endured it all: bore up under
the swift-as-flight, the fleeting, the far-gone,
the inconveivably vast, the still-to-learn,
serenely as a woman carrying water
moves with a full jug. Till in the midst of play,
transfiguring and preparing for the future,
the first white veil descended, gliding softly

over her opened face, almost opaque there,
never to be lifted again, and somehow
giving to all her questions just one answer:
In you, who were a child once--in you.