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Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke Quotes

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Famous Rainer Maria Rilke Quotes

“O how all things are far removed and long have passed away. I do believe the star, whose light my face reflects, is dead and has been so for many thousand years. I had a vision of a passing boat and heard some voices saying disquieting things. I heard a clock strike in some distant house... but in which house?... I long to quiet my anxious heart and stand beneath the sky's immensity. I long to pray... And one of all the stars must still exist. I do believe that I would know which one alone endured, and which like a white city stands at the ray's end shining in the heavens.”

KnowsYearsBelieveHeartLongHas BeensStillsEndsLightFacesHouseHeavenStarsVoiceWhiteCitiesVisionHeardSkyPrayingThousandQuietAll ThingsShiningStrikesPassingPassingsBoatClockRaysAnxiousThousand YearsPassed AwayImmensity
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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“She followed slowly, taking a long time, As though there were some obstacles in the way; And yet: as though, once it was overcome, She would be beyond all walking, and would fly.”

WayLongWould BeWalkingLong TimeOvercomingObstacles
Book:The best of Rilke: 72 form-true verse translations with facing originals, commentary, and compact biography ; translated by Walter Arndt ; foreword by Cyrus Hamlin
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“You, God, who live next door - If at times, through the long night, I trouble you with my urgent knocking - this is why: I hear you breathe so seldom. I know you're all alone in that room. If you should be thirsty, there's no one to get you a glass of water. I wait listening, always. Just give me a sign! I'm right here... Sen komşu tanrı, Uzun geceler bazen, Kapına vura vura uyandırıyorsam seni Solumanı seyrek duyduğumdandır... Bilirim, yalnızsın odanda. Sana birşey gerekse kimse yok, Bir yudum su versin aradığında. Hep dinlerim, yeter ki bir ses edin, Öyle yakınım sana.”

IfsKnowsGivingShouldLongNightNextWaitingWaterRoomsTroubleDoorsListeningGive MeGlassesBreatheUrgentKnockingThirstyAll AloneLong NightsYaksSana
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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“There would have to be bread, some rich, whole-grain bread and zwieback, and perhaps on a long, narrow dish some pale Westphalian ham laced with strips of white fat like an evening sky with bands of clouds. There would be some tea ready to be drunk, yellowish golden tea in glasses with silver saucers, giving off a faint fragrance.”

GivingLongWholeWould BeWhiteRichSkyReadyBandCloudsGlassesBreadFatsGoldenDrunkEveningTeaSilverGrainPaleDishesFragranceHamWhole GrainsEvening Sky
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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“And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious, and great things.”

YearsBelieveLongDoneFallGivenToo MuchSeriousDemandTasksClaimsGreat Things
Book:Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910
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“I want to unfold. I don't want to stay folded anywhere, because where I am folded, there I am a lie, and I want my grasp of things to be true. I want to describe myself like a painting that I looked at closely for a long time, like a saying that I finally understood, like the pitcher I use every day, like the face of my mother, like a ship that carried me through the wildest storm of all.”

WantLongUseFacesLyingMotherPaintingLong TimeUnderstoodStormShipsBeing TruePitcherDescribe Myself
Book:Selected poems
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“It is possible I am pushing through solid rock, like the vein of ore encased, alone. I am such a long way in I can see no way through and no space. Everything is close to my face and everything close to my face is stone. I don't have much knowledge yet in grief, so this darkness makes me feel small. You, be the Master; Make yourself fierce; break in. And then your great transforming will happen to me And my great grief cry will happen to you.”

WayFeelsLongI CanHappensFacesSpaceGriefBreakDarknessStruggleRocksCryMastersStonesPushingFierceVeinsLong WayTransformingLife StrugglePushing Through
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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“O trees of life, O when are you wintering?We are not unified. We have no instinctslike those of migratory birds. Useless, and late,we force ourselves, suddenly, onto the wind,and fall down to an indifferent lake.We realise flowering and fading together.And somewhere lions still roam. Never knowing,as long as they have their splendour, of any weakness.”

LongStillsTogetherFallForceKnowingTreeWindLateBirdWeaknessUselessLakesRealisingLionsIndifferentFalling DownFadingUnifiedFloweringTree Of LifeSplendourMigratory Birds
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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“Fig tree, how long it's been full meaning for me, the way you almost entirely omit to flower and into the seasonably-resolute fruit uncelebratedly thrust your purest secret. Like the tube of a fountain, your bent bough drives the sap downwards and up: and it leaps from its sleep, scarce waking, into the joy of its sweetest achievement.”

WayLongJoySleepSecretTreeFlowerAchievementFruitLeapWakingBentFountainSweetestThrustScarceTubesSapResoluteFigs
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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