What Fields Are As Fragrant As Your Hands? (Rilke)

Ephraim Rubenstein: What Fields Are As Fragrant As Your Hands?
from The Rilke Series
no copyright infringement intended

Hände auf?

Was fängt sind so wohlriechend wie Ihre Hände auf? Sie
glauben, wie externer Duft nach Ihrem stärkeren Widerstand steht.
Sterne stehen in den Bildern oben. Mir Ihre Öffnung geben, um zu
erweichen, zu lieben; ah, ist Ihr Haar alles in der Nutzlosigkeit.

Sehen, ich möchten Sie mit selbst und dem verblassenen Erwartung
Heber von den Rändern Ihrer Augenbrauen umgeben; Ich möchte, wie mit
den inneren blossen Augenlidern, für Sie alle Plätze schließen, die
durch meine zarten Liebkosungen jetzt erscheinen.

(http://bryantmcgill.com/wiki/poetry/rainer_maria_rilke/what_fields_are_as_fragrant_as)

Says Ephraim Rubenstein, my first responses to Rilke’s poetry were seen in terms of the landscape; he is of particular interest to me in this regard because his imagery is so beautifully concrete and because it is grounded to such a large extent within the landscape or within landscape associations: he often uses as his starting point descriptions of such natural phenomena as distance, vastness, minuteness, the weather, times of day and the changing effects of the seasons - from these visual effects, he is then able to connect immediately to intimate matters of the human heart, such as growth, transformation, decay, solitude and love.

I found several renderings of Rilke's poem, and I am fascinated by imagining how they sound in German, in English, in French, in Spanish, in Portuguese... If I find a Romanian version sometime I would add it here.

What fields are as fragrant as your hands?
You feel how external fragrance stands
upon your stronger resistance.
Stars stand in images above.
Give me your mouth to soften, love;
ah, your hair is all in idleness.

See, I want to surround you with yourself
and the faded expectation lift
from the edges of your eyebrows;
I want, as with inner eyelids sheer,
to close for you all places which appear
by my tender caresses now.

(http://bryantmcgill.com/wiki/poetry/rainer_maria_rilke/what_fields_are_as_fragrant_as)

Quels champs sont aussi parfumés que vos mains ? Tu juges comme le
parfum externe se tient sur votre résistance plus forte. Les étoiles
se tiennent dans les images ci-dessus.  me donner votre bouche pour se
ramollir, aimer; oh, vos cheveux sont tous dans l'oisiveté.

Voir, je veulent t'entourer avec vous-même et l'ascenseur fané
d'espérance à partir des bords de vos sourcils; Je veux, comme avec
les paupières intérieures fines, fermer pour toi tous les endroits
qui apparaissent par mes caresses tendres maintenant.

(http://bryantmcgill.com/wiki/poetry/rainer_maria_rilke/what_fields_are_as_fragrant_as)

¿Qué campos son tan fragantes como sus manos? Usted se siente cómo
la fragancia externa está parada sobre su resistencia más fuerte.
Las estrellas están paradas en imágenes arriba. Darme su boca para
ablandar, amar; ah, su pelo está todo en ociosidad.

Ver, yo desean rodearle con se y la elevación descolorada de la
expectativa de los bordes de sus cejas; Deseo, como con los párpados
internos escarpados, cerrar para usted todos los lugares que ahora
aparezcan por mis caricias blandas.

(http://bryantmcgill.com/wiki/poetry/rainer_maria_rilke/what_fields_are_as_fragrant_as)

Que campos são tão perfumados quanto suas mãos? Você sente como a
fragrância externa está em cima de sua resistência mais forte. As
estrelas estão nas imagens acima. Dar-me sua boca para amaciar, para
amar; ah, seu cabelo está todo no idleness.

Ver, mim querem cercá-lo com yourself e o elevador desvanecido da
expectativa das bordas de suas sobrancelhas; Eu quero, como com os
eyelids internos sheer, fechar para você todos os lugares que
aparecem por meus caresses macios agora.

(http://bryantmcgill.com/wiki/poetry/rainer_maria_rilke/what_fields_are_as_fragrant_as)

(Rainer Maria Rilke)

(Ephraim Rubenstein)

Rainer Maria Rilke: Sonette an Orpheus (Teil 1, I)

Ephraim Rubenstein: Sonnet to Orpheus
from The Rilke Series
no copyright infringement intended

Da stieg ein Baum. O reine Übersteigung!
O Orpheus singt! O hoher Baum im Ohr!
Und alles schwieg. Doch selbst in der Verschweigung
ging neuer Anfang, Wink und Wandlung vor.

Tiere aus Stille drangen aus dem klaren
gelösten Wald von Lager und Genist;
und da ergab sich, daß sie nicht aus List
und nicht aus Angst in sich so leise waren,

sondern aus Hören. Brüllen, Schrei, Geröhr
schien klein in ihren Herzen. Und wo eben
kaum eine Hütte war, dies zu empfangen,

ein Unterschlupf aus dunkelstem Verlangen
mit einem Zugang, dessen Pfosten beben, -
da schufst du ihnen Tempel im Gehör.

(http://www.sternenfall.de/Rilke--Die_Sonette_an_Orpheus--Erster_Teil--I-_Da_stieg_ein_Baum.html)

Sonnet form: abab cddc ecc cce


Is the painting of Rubenstein telling only part of the sonnet, with a modern Orpheus playing the  guitar and enjoying the peace and harmony all over the place? I would say we should observe the play of reflections mirroring the quiet reality and maybe putting it into question.

Tree arising! O pure ascendance!
Orpheus Sings! Towering tree within the ear!
Everywhere stillness, yet in this abeyance:
seeds of change and new beginnings near.

Creatures of silence emerged from the clear
unfettered forest, from dens, from lairs.
Not from shyness, this silence of theirs;
nor from any hint of fear,

simply from listening. Brutal shriek and roar
dwindled in their hearts. Where stood a mere
hut to house the passions of the ear,

constructed of longing darkly drear,
haphazardly wrought from front to rear,
you built them a temple at listening's core.

(http://www.hunterarchive.com/fileS/Poetry/SonnetsToOrpheus.html)

Or, un arbre monta, pur élan, de lui-même.
Orphée chante ! Quel arbre dans l’oreille !
Et tout se tut. Mais ce silence était
lui-même un renouveau : signes, métamorphose…

Faits de silence, des animaux surgirent
des gîtes et des nids de la claire forêt.
Il apparut que ni la ruse ni la peur
ne les rendaient silencieux ; c’était

à force d’écouter. Bramer, hurler, rugir,
pour leur cœur c’eût été trop peu. Où tout à l’heure
une hutte offrait à peine un pauvre abri,

— refuge fait du plus obscur désir,
avec un seuil où tremblaient les portants, —
tu leur dressas des temples dans l’ouïe.

(http://www.skafka.net/archives/alice69/doc/rmr_sonnetsaorphee.htm)

(Rainer Maria Rilke)

(Ephraim Rubenstein)

Rainer Maria Rilke: Sonette an Orpheus (Teil 2, XIII)

Ephraim Rubenstein: Be Ahead of All Parting
from The Rilke Series
no copyright infringement intended

Sei allem Abschied voran, als wäre er hinter

dir, wie der Winter, der eben geht.

Denn unter Wintern ist einer so endlos Winter,

daß, überwinternd, dein Herz überhaupt übersteht.

Sei immer tot in Eurydike --, singender steige,

preisender steige zurück in den reinen Bezug.

Hier, unter Schwindenden, sei, im Reiche der Neige,

sei ein klingendes Glas, das sich im Klang schon zerschlug.

Sei - und wisse zugleich des Nicht-Seins Bedingung,

den unendlichen Grund deiner innigen Schwingung,

daß du sie völlig vollziehst dieses einzige Mal.

Zu dem gebrauchten sowohl, wie zum dumpfen und stummen

Vorrat der vollen Natur, den unsäglichen Summen,

zaehle dich jubelnd hinzu und vernichte die Zahl.

(15.-17.02.1922)

http://www.sonett-archiv.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1734

Sonnet form: abab cdcd eef ggf

Says Ephraim Rubenstein, in the early 1990's I began working on a series of paintings and drawings based on the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. They are not illustrations per se, rather visual responses to the mood, imagery and rhythms of the poems.

Here is an English rendering of this sonnet, from a book whose name is A Year with Rilke: a collection of daily reading from his poetry.

Be ahead of all parting, as if it had already happened,
like winter, which even now is passing.
For beneath the winter is a winter so endless
that to survive it at all is a triumph of the heart.

Be forever dead in Eurydice, and climb back singing.
Climb praising as you return to connection.
Here among the disappearing, in the realm of the transient,
be a ringing glass that shatters as it rings.

Be. And know as well the need to not be:
let that ground of all that changes
bring you to completion now.

To all that has run its course, and to the vast unsayable
numbers of beings abounding in Nature,
add yourself gladly, and cancel the cost.

(http://yearwithrilke.blogspot.ro/2011/01/be-ahead-of-all-parting.html)

Is there any connection between the poem and the painting? Again Ephraim Rubenstein, his poetry has always struck me as intensely visual... born frequently as a respinse to specific paintings, sculptures and buildings.Well, I think it is more than that: the painting of Rubenstein expresses a unity in duality - reality and its image, reality and its mirroring illusion, reality and non-reality (parting while subtly wishing each other). Is it not the same with the sonnet of Rilke? As someone said (http://myweb.dal.ca/waue/Trans/Rilke-Orpheus.html), a Wegweiser (signpost) for death and for life together, for keeping the moment and for rennouncing to it: Be. And know as well the need to not be.

It is not an easy poem to understand. Or maybe you should let yourself to its rhythm, dreaming rather than remaining lucid? Here is a Romanian rendering:

Fii înaintea oricarei despartiri, ca si cum s-ar afla

in urma ta, ca iarna care tocmai sfarseste.

Caci printre ierni, e-o iarna ce-atat te va ierna,

ca inima ti-o-ntrece si supravietuieste.

Sa mori neincetat in Euridice –, si suie cantind iara,

si mai mult slavind, suie-napoi in raportul curat.

Intre cei ce se sting in apunerii tara,

fii un cristal care, sunand, s-a spart cu sunetu-odat'.

Fii – si cunoaste si a nefiintei stare,

nesfarsit intemeind launtrica-ti vibrare,

deplin s-o desavirsesti în aceasta unica oara.

Printre uzatele, ca si printre mutele, fara nume,

rezerve ale deplinei naturi, – negraitele sume –

extatic sa te numeri – si numarul fa-l ca sa piara.

(http://www.poezie.ro/index.php/poetry/115021/index.html)

It was the French rendering that allowed me to get somehow the meaning (it is true that I found it after the other versions, so I was somehow prepared):

Devance tous les adieux, comme s’ils étaient

derrière toi, ainsi que l’hiver qui justement s’éloigne.

Car parmi les hivers il en est un si long

qu’en hivernant ton cœur aura surmonté tout.

Sois toujours mort en Eurydice — en chantant de plus en plus, monte,

remonte en célébrant dans le rapport pur.

Ici, parmi ceux qui s’en vont, sois, dans l’empire des fuites,

sois un verre qui vibre et qui dans son chant déjà s’est brisé.

Sois — et connais en même temps la condition du non-être,

l’infinie profondeur de ta vibration intime,

c’est qu’en une seule fois tu l’accomplisses toute.

Aux réserves dépensées et aux couvantes, aux muettes

réserves de la nature, à ses sommes ineffables,

ajoute-toi en jubilant, — et détruis le nombre.

(http://www.skafka.net/archives/alice69/doc/rmr_sonnetsaorphee.htm)

(Rainer Maria Rilke)

(Ephraim Rubenstein)

Ephraim Rubenstein: Unity in Contrasts

Ephraim Rubenstein: Steve Chu's open
(http://www.ephraimrubenstein.com/632/exhibitions/streets-exhibition-principle-gallery-alexandria/)
no copyright infringement intended

As I was looking at the image above, it was Hopper that came in mind. Then I saw the image below, and I realized that the author was searching for a unity in contrasts.

Ephraim Rubenstein will be present on Streets, a show-group organized at Principle Gallery (208 King Street, Alexandria VA) on September 21. I would like to come back to Rubenstein's works one day, as he has a series of paintings paralleling poems of Rilke. What about letting the poem and the painting to flow together?

Ephraim Rubenstein: Steve Chu's closed
(http://www.ephraimrubenstein.com/work/steve-chu-closed/)
no copyright infringement intended

• Be Ahead of All Parting (Rilke, Sonette an Orpheus, Teil 2, XIII)
• Da Stieg Ein Baum... (Rilke, Sonette an Orpheus, Teil 1, I)
• What Fields Are As Fragrant As Your Hands? 

(Principle Gallery)