Centre for Romanian Studies

Poetry in Translation (CCCXLIII), Rainer Maria RILKE (1875, Prague – 1926, Montreux), CZECHIA/AUSTRIA: “You Who Never Arrived ”, “Tu care n-ai ajuns niciodată”

Rainer-Maria RILKE

You Who Never Arrived
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

You who never arrived
in my arms, Beloved, who were lost
from the start,
I don’t even know what songs
would please you. I have given up trying
to recognize you in the surging wave of
the next moment. All the immense
images in me — the far-off, deeply-felt
landscape, cities, towers, and bridges, and
unsuspected turns in the path,
and those powerful lands that were once
pulsing with the life of the gods–
all rise within me to mean
you, who forever elude me.

You, Beloved, who are all
the gardens I have ever gazed at,
longing. An open window
in a country house– , and you almost
stepped out, pensive, to meet me.
Streets that I chanced upon,–
you had just walked down them and vanished.
And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors
were still dizzy with your presence and,
startled, gave back my too-sudden image.
Who knows? Perhaps the same
bird echoed through both of us
yesterday, separate, in the evening…

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Tu care n-ai ajuns niciodată
Rainer Maria RILKE

Tu care n-ai ajuns niciodată
în braţele mele, Iubito, ce te-am pierdut
dela-nceput,
nici nu mai ştiu ce odă
ţi-ar fi plăcut. Am renunţat să mai încerc
desluşindu- te în creasta valului
clipei care vine. Tot noianul
visurilor mele – celor mai îndepărtate, mai pierdute
imagini, oraşe, turnuri, poduri şi
răscruci de cărări negândite,
din toate aceste ţinuturi care cândva
zvâcneau cu viaţa zeilor,
toate acestea tresar în mine, închipuindu-te
pe tine, tu, cea care te-am pierdut in veşnicie.

Tu, Iubita mea, care eşti pentru mine
toate grădinile de care s-a îmbătat
dorul meu. O fereastră deschisă
în casa dela ţară, din care tu, neaşteptată,
ai ieşit, gânditoare, în întâmpinarea mea.
Drumurile care mi le-am închipuit,
că le-ai fi umblat, s-au pierdut.
Si uneori, într-un magazin, oglinzile
încă mai palpitau cu prezenţa ta, şi,
tresărind, reflectau profilul meu omniprezent.
Oare cine ştie? Poate aceeaşi
pasăre şi-ar fi aflat ecoul amândorura
ieri, separat, în amurgul serii.

Versiune in limba Română de Constantin ROMAN, Londra
© 2015 Copyright Constantin ROMAN, London

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SHORT BIO: René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria RILKE (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926. Rilke was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, travelled extensively throughout Europe, including Russia, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, and in his later years settled in Switzerland—settings that were key to the genesis and inspiration for many of his poems. While Rilke is most known for his contributions to German literature, over 400 poems were originally written in French and dedicated to the canton of Valais in Switzerland. These deeply existential themes tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist writers.