Here are some things you probably didn't know about me:
- Sometimes I read things other than romance novels.
- I have 3/4 of an art history degree.
- One time David Sedaris told me I should start smoking.
- I love poetry.
This poem happened to stop me in my tracks over the weekend, and I wanted to share it with you.
Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke
(emphasis is mine)
We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,
gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.
Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast’s fur:
would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.
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It is a great poem although I am not very keen on the translation into English. But then again I reckon Shakespeare might not sound that hot in German either :D
ReplyDeleteI do love Rainer Maria Rilke although he can be a bit moany at times.
I read a few different translations, and I chose this one because it was the version I first read. I like it, but I wonder if any of the other translations are better.
DeleteYou must change your life.
ReplyDeleteThat's deep man. I'm not going to lie, I am not really down with the poetry. There's Annabell Lee by Poe that I used to love and it used to make me cry. Then there's this random poem, I don't even know who wrote it:
Somewhere they foxtrot madly
While in lunar shadows sadly
I keep pace with crickets gladly
And Moon rises with my bile.
My lover Mikel (from the Airborne Toxic Event) has the first line etched into his guitar and I'm a stalker and I saw it at a show and I googled it and when I read it... it made me cry like a bitch. How sad... somewhere someone is having a blast and poor bastard is just alone and sad.
Moral of the story? I cry a lot.
I have googled this "Mikel" you speak of, and I am pleased.
DeleteSTEP OFF IT HOE HE'S MINE!
Delete*Ahem* I apologize. I just feel so possessive of my Mikel.