Sonnets to Orpheus

Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Edward Snow, 58 pages

Vera Knoop died of leukemia at age nineteen.  An accomplished dancer from an early age, she was a close friend of Ruth Rilke, daughter of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.  Several years after her death, at the time of his daughter's engagement, locked deep in depression as he struggled fruitlessly to compose what would become the Duino Elegies, Rilke found inspiration in the sorrowful memory of his daughter's deceased friend.  The result is 55 magnificent sonnets which allude at times to Vera and at others to Orpheus, the child of the Muses, patron of music, dance, and poetry. and therefore the connection between the poet Rilke and the dancer Vera.  Orpheus is invoked, not as a symbol of resurrection, but as a summoner of shades.

     Only he who has also raised

     his lyre among shadows

     may find his way back

     to infinite praise.

The sonnets speak less of hope than of pagan resignation

     Though the world change swiftly

     as the forms in clouds,

     all perfected things fall back

     to age-old ground.

But power belongs to poetry, to beauty

     Alone over the land

     song hallows and heals.

Which brings us to the justly famous conclusion

     And if the earthly should forget you

     say to the silent loam: I flow.

     To the rushing water speak: I am.