Rainer Maria Rilke was born in Prague in 1875 to a German-speaking family. As soon as he was able, he left home and spent his life jumping between numerous locations: Spain, Russia, Northern Germany, Paris, Italy, among others. He finally landed in a small country chateau nestled in the vineyards of Switzerland where he lived until his death in 1926.
Three Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke
from the series Quatrains Valaisans [Valaisian Quatrains]
translated from the French by Susanne Petermann
30
Au lieu de s’évader,
ce pays consent à lui-même;
ainsi il est doux et extrême,
menacé et sauvé.
Il s’adonne avec ferveur
à ce ciel qui l’inspire;
il excite son vent et attire
par lui la plus neuve primeur
de cette inédite
lumière d’outre-mont:
l’horizon qui hésite
lui arrive par bonds.
30
Rather than escaping,
this land accepts itself;
thus it is gentle and harsh,
vulnerable and saved.
Fervently it gives itself
to its inspiration, the sky;
it arouses the wind, attracting
the newest and freshest
of that unedited light
from beyond the mountains:
the reluctant horizon
approaches, leaping.
33
Ce ciel qu’avaient contemplé
ceux qui le loueront
pendant l’éternité:
bergers et vignerons,
serait-il par leurs yeux
devenu permanent,
ce beau ciel et son vent,
son vent bleu?
Et son calme après,
si profond et si fort,
comme un dieu satisfait
qui s’endort.
33
Could it be that shepherds
and growers of wine,
contemplating the sky
and praising it eternally,
make it more permanent
with their eyes,
this fair sky and its wind,
its blue wind?
And its calm afterward,
so heavy and so deep,
like a satisfied god
falling asleep.
35
Au ciel, plein d’attention,
ici la terre raconte;
son souvenir la surmonte
dans ces nobles monts.
Parfois elle paraît attendrie
qu’on l’écoute si bien—
alors elle montre sa vie
et ne dit plus rien.
35
In this place the earth tells her story
to a sky full of attention;
the strength of her memory shapes her
into these noble mountains.
Sometimes she seems moved
that we listen so well—
when we do, she reveals her life
and then says nothing else.
37: CIEL VALAISAN
Comment notre coeur lorsqu’il vibre
a-t-il tant besoin
que tout un ciel de loin
lui donne des conseils d’équilibre.
Mais ce ciel depuis toujours
a de nos cris l’habitude;
ami de la terre rude,
il en adoucit le contour.
37: VALAISIAN SKY
When our heart is aroused
it is full of desire
to be shown what is balance
by the whole broad sky.
But the sky has known
our sorrows forever;
friend of the rugged earth,
smoothing out her contours.
Susanne Petermann is a Southern Oregon poet who has published her poems and translations in various revues. Her book of translations, When I Go, Selected French Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke was published by Cascade Books. A graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, she spent a decade traveling and studying language in Europe, and teaching English in Morocco before moving to the West Coast of the U.S.
