Post photo: Enjoying coffee | © Pixabay
Rainer Maria Rilke has often been a “guest” here on the blog because his poems are still a pleasure even after over 100 years and have often not lost any of their relevance. The poem below is perhaps less well-known, but one line from it has made it into common parlance: “If you don't have a house now, you won't build one anymore.” - at least here in the southwest, this sentence is still common today .
His Book of Hours, published in 1905, is probably better known and contains a total of 134 poems in three volumes. The big advantage is that no autumn day can last long enough for you to be able to read all of these poems. Nevertheless, it is always a nice thing to pick out a poem by Rilke and spend a little time with it.
And so today I picked out this poem from the book of poems “The Book of Pictures”, which also fits today’s wind and weather quite well. And since there is the Internet, you can very quickly find other beautiful poems or - even better - additional information about the poem you have just read.
I'm always amazed at what you can pack into three verses if you're a good poet or writer. But even that can be improved, provided of course you have the appropriate skills: Japanese haiku are a very good example of this. My favorite poem about an old pond can also be found here in the weblog.
The three verses of Rainer Maria Rilke but they have already given me enough food for thought today. And as soon as there is a little more sun, I will deepen these thoughts further with a walk. If you now feel like reading the poem below, then take a look at what can be read and understood in these twelve lines.
Autumn day
Gentleman: It's time. The summer was very big.
Put your shadow on the sundials,
And in the corridors let the winds loose.Command the last fruits to be full;
Give them two more southern days,
Push them towards perfection and chase
The final sweetness in the heavy wine.If you don't have a house now, you won't build one anymore.
Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Pictures (1902)
Whoever is alone now will remain so for a long time,
Will wake up, read, write long letters
And goes back and forth in the avenues
Wander restlessly as the leaves drift.
By the way, our world would be a much better and more lovable place if, instead of loitering or even complaining on social media, most people would pick out a poem and immerse themselves in it.
It would be even better if people then exchanged ideas with each other about the poem they read.
