10 August 2008

translation request

someone asked me to translate rainer maria rilke's Liebeslied, so here goes:

lovesong

how to hold my soul so that
it won't touch yours? how to
carry it well over you on to what remains?
so much do i long to embed it
in things lost in dark
at a strange silent spot that
won't rock when your downs roll.
it is all that has moved you and i, us,
that sums you and i like a stroke
hums one sound from two strings.
which instrument is it we're strung to?
at what bandsman's hands?
o sweet song.


it sounds a little more modern than the german original i suppose, but rilke was 32 when he wrote it, so i guess that would still count as young and hip. for dustier translations, see here, or here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"that
won't rock when your downs roll" klingt aber mehr als 'a little more modern than the german original' "die
nicht weiterschwingt,wenn deine Tiefen schwingen".