Page 2: Rainer Maria Rilke – Prayers of a Young Poet
God is never addressed directly in Prayers of a Young Poet, instead Rilke’s monk addresses God with an intimate yet reverent “You”. Reflecting on his life of painting icons, Rilke’s monk prays:
I know: You’re the mysterious one
around whom time stood hesitantly still.
O how beautifully I shaped You
with my proud hand
in the hour that punished me so. [48]
God is not, in these prayers, a source of bright light, but rather is most often referred to as “darkness”. Yet one gets the sense that “darkness” to Rilke, and his monk, is not threatening but full of opportunity. The poems, and their epigraphs, are filled with images from the natural world, most commonly that of the dark, expansive forest that the monk often walks and composes poetry within. Where we, in the West, so often emphasize the duality of light vs. Dark, I found myself feeling profoundly freed by this consideration of dark as the place, indeed, where God is so often found—and not because dark is always threatening, but it is both “hemming in” and “heath and wide”. God too, isn’t so much a being as a becoming to Rilke.
You willing one! Your grace came
always in the most ancient of gestures;
when someone clasps his hands together
so that they’re gentle
and centered on a little bit of dark:
suddenly he feels You becoming within them… [67]
Truly reading Rilke’s prayers is not so much an exercise in theology and meaning, but in sense: a sense of openness toward God, finding God in everything, and reflecting on the deeper currents of life and spirituality. The first four poems all echo with the phrase, “I don’t know.” Certain of Rilke’s poems do hold out hope and meaning I found myself clinging to, others are ethereal and obscure—a trait I understand to be Rilke’s own, not that of the translator, though Burrows did resist the “clarifying” that others have attempted when translating Rilke.
“Prayers of a Young Poet” is a particularly valuable volume, not only because of its masterfully translated and written poems, but because of a thorough, accessible introduction by Burrows and his closing remarks on the task of translating Rilke. Not only did I delve into the poetry of Rilke, but I felt grounded in his life story, and the shape of Rilke’s work and spirituality before I ever began reading the poems. Burrow’s introduction goes beyond mere facts to illuminate themes, particular turns of phrase and it gives a sense of the essence of Rilke’s poetry that was invaluable as I encountered it. His closing essay, as well, helped me to understand and respect his choices as a translator, but moreso to respect and love Rilke’s own hand and to recognize, once again, something of his thrust and message, however much in glimpses.
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