Ninth Elegtv 2007

THE NINTH ELEGY

IX 1 Why, when it’s feasible to pass away the duration

IX 2 of existence as laurel, a little darker than all

IX 3 other green, with tiny ripples along each

IX 4 leaf’s edge (like a wind’s smile) —: why then

IX 5 human necessity — and, evading destiny,

IX 6 long for destiny?...

IX 7 Oh not because happiness exists,

IX 8 that premature premium of a nearing loss.

IX 9 Not out of curiosity, or for training the heart

IX 10 that would also exist in the laurel ….

IX 11 But because being here is much, and because all things here apparently

IX 12 need us, the fading things that

IX 13 uncannily concern us. Us, the most fading. One time

IX 14 each thing, just one time. One time and no more. And we also

IX 15 one time. Never again. But having existed

IX 16 this one time, even if only one time:

IX 17 having been earthly seems irrevocable.

IX 18 And so we press on and want to achieve it,

IX 19 want to contain it in our simple hands,

IX 20 in the more overfilled gaze and in the speechless heart.

IX 21 Want to become it. — To whom to give it? Most preferably

IX 22 to keep it all forever . . . Ah, into the other relation,

IX 23 alas, what does one carry across? Not the gazing

IX 24 learned gradually here, nor any occurrence here. None.

IX 25 Therefore the pain. Therefore especially weightiness,

IX 26 therefore love’s lengthy experience, — therefore

IX 27 only the ineffable. But later

IX 28 among the stars, what’s the use: their ineffability is better.

IX 29 The wanderer brings after all from the brink of the mountain cliff

IX 30 not a handful of earth (ineffable to all) into the valley, but rather

IX 31 an acquired word, pure, the yellow and blue gentian.

IX 32 Are we perhaps here in order to utter: house,

IX 33 bridge, fountain, gate, pitcher, fruit tree, window; —

IX 34 at the utmost: column, tower . . . . but to utter them, understand,

IX 35 oh to utter as the things themselves never

IX 36 thought to exist so fervently. Is it not the secret cunning

IX 37 of this reticent earth to induce the lovers

IX 38 that every single thing be ecstatic in their emotion?

IX 39 Threshold: what is it to two

IX 40 lovers, that their own older threshold of the door

IX 41 they slightly wear down, they too, after the many before them

IX 42 and before those of the future…lightly.

IX 43 Here is the time of the effable, here is its homeland.

IX 44 Speak and profess. More than ever

IX 45 the things are falling away that we can experience, for

IX 46 that which, expelling them, replaces them, is activity without image.

IX 47 Activity under crusts that willingly burst as soon as

IX 48 action grows out from within and forms other borders.

IX 49 Between the hammers withstands

IX 50 our heart, like the tongue

IX 51 between the teeth that still

IX 52 nonetheless continues to praise.

IX 53 Praise to the angel this world, not the ineffable one, him

IX 54 you cannot overawe with glorious things you have felt; in the universe,

IX 55 where he feels more feelingly, you are a neophyte. Therefore, reveal

IX 56 to him the simple, from generation to generations

IX 57 which live as our own, next to the hand and in the gaze.

IX 58 Express things to him. He will stand more marveling, as you stood

IX 59 by the rope-maker in Rome or by the potter on the Nile.

IX 60 Display to him how happy a thing can be, how guiltless and ours,

IX 61 how even lamenting sufferance itself purely decides to take shape,

IX 62 serves as a thing, or dies into a thing — and on the far side,

IX 63 blissfully exudes from the violin. — And these things that live

IX 64 on passing away understand why you celebrate them; ephemeral,

IX 65 they entrust a saving act to us, the most ephemeral.

IX 66 Want us to wholly transfigure them within our invisible heart,

IX 67 into — oh endlessly — into us! Whoever we may be in the end.

IX 68 Earth, is it not this that you want: invisibly

IX 69 to arise inside us? — Is it not your dream

IX 70 to be someday invisible? — Earth! Invisible!

IX 71 What, if not transfiguration, is your urgent task?

IX 72 Earth, beloved, I am willing. Oh believe, it needs

IX 73 no more of your springtimes to win me over to you —, one,

IX 74 ah, a single one is already too much for the blood.

IX 75 Nameless, I have elected in favour of you, from afar.

IX 76 You have always been in the right, and your holy acuity

IX 77 is the companionesque death.

IX 78 See, I am living. On what? Neither childhood nor future

IX 79 diminish…. Supernumerary existence

IX 80 upsprings in my heart.

Click here to go to 2007 English version of the Tenth Elegy

Click here to go to German Text of the Tenth Elegy

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