Interesting Poem

Rilke Rereading Hölderlin

By George Kalogeris

Footnotes to the tower. For “He spends the summer

There, in a state of violent agitation,”

Read: “It’s there, in his agitation’s most violent

State that Hölderlin suspends the summer” —

Like a yellow pear above the untroubled water.

For the lost, disheveled decades of derangement,

Translate I was struck by Apollo as you

Must change your life. For sonnets that sing their own

Spontaneous, Orphic necessity to praise,

Think naked as a lightning rod he waited.

For necessity insert Anangke. But for

Anangke, “Lord, just one more summer, please.”

For summer, the lyre. Hölderlin in his tower.

Until autumn, when the leaves start falling. Whoever

Has nowhere to go will never get home now.

Adolescencia renovada!

Adiós, Sylvia

Recuerdos de un adolescente.

Adiós, Sylvia.

Denn das Schöne ist nichts
als des Schrecklichen Anfang, den wir noch gerade ertragen,
und wir bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht,
uns zu zerstören.

Pues lo bello no es nada
sino el principio de lo terrible, lo que somos apenas capaces de soportar,
lo que sólo admiramos porque serenamente
desdeña destrozarnos.

Rainer Maria Rilke