Imaginary Life History
english translation
Imaginary Life History
First a childhood, limitless and free
of goal and renouncing. O unconscious bliss.
Suddenly limits, fear, school, drudgery,
the fall into temptation and sharp loss.
Defiance. Bent, the child becomes the bender,
revenging on others what he suffered through.
Loved and dreaded, savior, wrestler, winner
and conqueror, inflicting blow on blow.
And then alone in vastness, light, and cold.
Yet deep within the person’s grown-up state,
a gasping for the first, the world of old. . . .
Then God leapt out from where he lay in wait.
— Translated from the German of Rainer Maria Rilke
by Susan McLean
original German poem
“Imaginärer Lebenslauf”
Imaginärer Lebenslauf Trotz. Der Gebogene wird selber Bieger Und dann allein im Weiten, Leichten, Kalten. Da stürzte Gott aus seinem Hinterhalt.
— Rainer Maria Rilke |
Imaginary Course of Life Defiance. The bent child becomes himself the bender, And then alone in vastness, light, cold. Then God leapt out from his place of ambush.
— Susan McLean |
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this page
- Printer-friendly version