XX

from Les Roses

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Dis-moi, rose, d’où vient

qu’en toi-même enclose,

ta lente essence impose

à cet espace en prose

tous ces transports aériens?

Combien de fois cet air

prétend que les choses le trouent,

ou, avec une moue,

il se montre amer.

Tandis qu’autour de ta chair,

rose, il fait la roue.

XX

from The Roses

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Tell me, rose. Where did

your slow essence impose

all this air,

enclosed within yourself,

in this space of prose?

How many times has this air

claimed that things perforate,

or, with a sneer,

watch bitterly

while that around your flesh,

rose, cartwheels?

translated from French by Micah McCrary

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Rainer Maria Rilke was born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke in December 1875 in Prague. He lived in Prague until 1886, followed by residencies in Berlin, Munich, Russia, Paris, and Italy, where he authored the Duino Elegies. He is also the author of The Book of Hours, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, Sonnets to Orpheus, and Letters to a Young Poet. He died of leukemia on December 29, 1926.

Micah McCrary is a regular contributor to The Nervous Breakdown and Bookslut. His essays, reviews, and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Identity Theory, Third Coast, Midwestern Gothic, The Essay Review, HTMLGIANT, South Loop Review, and Newcity. Former Assistant Editor at Hotel Amerika, and currently a reader at A Public Space, he holds an MFA in Nonfiction from Columbia College Chicago.

Circumference

Poetry in Translation

XX

from Les Roses

XX

from The Roses