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A review by ambi2
Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke
4.0
“Love the questions and perhaps you’ll love your way into the answers...
And you yourself
what do you know?
You stirred up
prehistory
in your lover.
...
That’s what fate means:
to be facing each other
and nothing but each other
and to be doing it forever.
...
Who has turned us around this way
so that we’re always
whatever we do
in the posture of someone
who is leaving?
Like a man
on the final hill
that shows him
his whole valley
one last time
who turns and stands there
lingering —
that’s how we live
always
saying goodbye.
...
Between the hammer strokes
our hearts survive
like the tongue
that between the teeth
and in spite of everything
goes on praising.
...
Look, I’m living.
On what?
Neither my childhood nor my future
is growing smaller . . .
Being
in excess
wells up
in my heart.”
And you yourself
what do you know?
You stirred up
prehistory
in your lover.
...
That’s what fate means:
to be facing each other
and nothing but each other
and to be doing it forever.
...
Who has turned us around this way
so that we’re always
whatever we do
in the posture of someone
who is leaving?
Like a man
on the final hill
that shows him
his whole valley
one last time
who turns and stands there
lingering —
that’s how we live
always
saying goodbye.
...
Between the hammer strokes
our hearts survive
like the tongue
that between the teeth
and in spite of everything
goes on praising.
...
Look, I’m living.
On what?
Neither my childhood nor my future
is growing smaller . . .
Being
in excess
wells up
in my heart.”