Rainer Maria Rilke Translation: Love Song

Liebes-Lied (“Love Song”) by Rainer Maria Rilke loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch How can I withhold my soul so that it doesn’t touch yours? How can I lift mine gently to higher things, alone? Oh, I would gladly find something lost in the dark in that inert space that fails to resonate until you vibrate. There everything that moves us, draws us together like a bow enticing two taut strings to sing together with a simultaneous voice. Whose instrument are we becoming together? Whose, the hands that excite us? Ah, sweet song! Excerpt from “Loneliness” by Rainer Maria Rilke translation by Michael R. Burch Being alone and apart is like the rain ascending at evening from alien plains: from lonely plateaus, unseen and unsought, it climbs toward heaven, its sublime ancient home, and only, when fallen, pities the city. Du im Voraus (“You who never arrived”) by Rainer Maria Rilke loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch You who never arrived in my arms, my Belovéd, lost before we began... How can I possibly know which songs might please you? I have given up trying to envision you in portentous moments before the next wave impacts... when all the vastness and immenseness within me, all the far-off undiscovered lands and landscapes, all the cities, towers and bridges, all the unanticipated twists and turns in the road, and all those terrible terrains once traversed by strange gods— engender new meaning in me: your meaning, my enigmatic darling... You, who continually elude me. You, my Belovéd, who are every garden I ever gazed upon, longingly, through some country manor’s open window, so that you almost stepped out, pensively, to meet me; who are every sidestreet I ever chanced upon, even though you’d just traipsed tantalizingly away, and vanished, while the disconcerted shopkeepers’ mirrors still dizzily reflected your image, flashing you back at me, startled by my unwarranted image! Who knows, but perhaps the same songbird’s cry echoed through us both, yesterday, separate as we were, that evening? Keywords/Tags: German, translation, Rainer Maria Rilke, love, song, muse, music, soul, soulmate, vibrate, vibration, space, dark, darkness, instrument, bow, strings, hands, voice, loneliness, garden, mirror, mirrors, alone, apart, rain, evening, heaven, city, arrived, beloved, garden, lost, wave, road, roads, bridges, impact, twists, turns, gods, window, street, sidestreet, image, songbird, cry, song, echo, echoed