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Sonnets to Orpheus

Book by Rainer Maria Rilke · 3 quotes · Orpheus, Divinity, Beauty

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Sonnets to Orpheus Quotes

“Just as the sheet nearest to hand takes from a master The true hasty stroke, just so The mirror often takes into itself The sole, the divine laugh of a girl, As she experiences the morning, alone - Or in the radiance of attendant candlelight. And later, when this visage actually breathes, Gives back only a reflection. What eyes have not upon occasion gazed Into the long-smoking embers that fade in the fire: Life-glimpses, lost forever?”

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“Oh scattered band, once my playmates, you few Who were amidst the gardens here and there in the city, How hesitantly we located one another, took fancies and Like the tapestry lamb whose mute words are on a scroll, Spoke through silence. Our little joys were Never communicated, - Whose indeed were they? And among all the passers-by, those hurriers, how it all Evanesced quite away, weighed down by the torment of the endless year. Past us were drawn the carriages, wholly indifferent, Round us the houses stood strong but not real, - and none Of these were aware of us. What was truly real in it all? Nothing. Only the balls we tossed, their magnificent arcs, But certainly not the children. ... Though sometimes one would step - Alas, one who would soon be lost, - beneath a falling ball.”

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“Does time really exist, time the destroyer? When will it break down the castle into mere fragments? When will this heart which has always been in the service of the gods Be governed by the Creator, the Demiurge? Are we really so desperately fragile As Fate would wish to make us? Is childhood, which is so deep, so full of promise, Later stilled at its root? Oh, the spectre of perishability, How it infiltrates and passes through the innocently receptive, As if it were smoke! And we, we who are drifting, We still rank as a divine rite Amongst those lasting Powers.”

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