Sonnets to Orpheus

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Sonnets to Orpheus Rainer Maria Rilke he German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) had been so completely Tdevastated by his experiences in World War I that he was not able to write. While living at the thirteenth-century Château de Muzot in Switzerland, he was deeply moved by the untimely death of his daughter Ruth’s childhood friend, Vera Ouckama Knoop. Inspired once again to write, Rilke dedicated the Sonnets to Orpheus as a Grab-Mal (Grave Marker) for young Vera, and the poetry flowed from him in torrents. He composed twenty-six of the fifty-five sonnets of the Orpheus cycle in the space of three days, February 2-5, 1922, without editing. The rest of these, and his Duino Elegies, he com- Orpheus with Lyre and Animals, Virgil Solis (1563), illustration for pleted during the remainder of that February. Ovid’s Metamorphoses, from Ovid Illustrated. Sonnet 1 Sonnet 5 There rose a tree. Oh growth so great!1 Don’t build a monument. Let only the Oh Orpheus sings! Oh tree, I hear you rose now!2 bloom every year in his honor. And all is silent, but even in the silence For it is Orpheus, his metamorphosis new beginning, sign and change arose. in this and that. We should not trouble Out of the silence animals came from about other names. Once and always bed and nest it is Orpheus, when he sings. He comes in the forest, clear and calm; and goes. and it happened that it was neither ruse Isn’t it enough, when he outlasts3 the nor fear, per se, bowl of that caused them to be silent, roses by a day or two? but listening, yelling, screaming, roaring Oh, that he must leave, so you can seemed small in their hearts and where understand! there was no shelter to receive this, Though he worries about leaving. no refuge of darkest desire Because his word is mightier than his with an entrance with posts that shiver, presence, you created temples in their ear. he is already where you cannot follow. His hands not tied by the lyre’s grid. And he obeys by crossing the line. (Original translation of Sonnets by Eberhard Ehrich, F.R.C.) 1 Literal translation: so excessive. 2 Literal translation: so tall in our ear. 3 Literal translation: over stays. Page 37.

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