i-Namibia

• Die Engel, von Rainer Maria Rilke

Sie haben alle müde Münde
und helle Seelen ohne Saum.
Und eine Sehnsucht (wie nach Sünde)
geht ihnen manchmal durch den Traum.

Fast gleichen sie einander alle;
in Gottes Gärten schweigen sie,
wie viele, viele Intervalle
in seiner Macht und Melodie.

Nur wenn sie ihre Flügel breiten,
sind sie die Wecker eines Winds:
als ginge Gott mit seinen weiten
Bildhauerhänden durch die Seiten
im dunklen Buch des Anbeginns.

Hier die englische Interpretation von Walter A. Aue: 

• The Angels, by Rainer Maria Rilke

They all have lips profoundly tired
and lucid souls without a seam,
and yearning (like a sin desired)
moves sometimes slowly through their dream.

They nigh resemble one another
and walk His gardens silently:
so many intervals that gather
in God’s majestic melody.

But only with their wings extending
do they call forth the heaven’s gales:
like sculptor God Himself were bending
the pages, and His hands were mending
the book of dark creation tales.

Des Ãœbersetzers eigener Kommentar dazu:

The translation isn’t quite there? Sure, I am trampling through one of God’s quiet gardens, where even angels fear to tread. But then, those “deadly birds of the soul” (Second Duino Elegy) are too preoccupied – perhaps with thoughts of sin, as Rilke titillates – to strike me down. Or they deign to ignore me. … 

Rilke’s DIY comes packaged in glittering poetic language. Some of that – e.g. the metaphors and similes – can be translated. The music of his language, on the other hand… 

And, to me, it is the music that makes a Rilke poem.