{"id":175989,"date":"2021-01-18T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=175989"},"modified":"2021-01-07T07:56:21","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T07:56:21","slug":"from-the-ninth-elegy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/01\/from-the-ninth-elegy\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u201cThe Ninth Elegy\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why, if it could begin as laurel, and be spent so,
\nthis space of Being, a little darker than all
\nthe surrounding green, with little waves at the edge
\nof every leaf (like a breeze\u2019s smile)\u2014: why then
\nhave to be human \u2014 and shunning destiny
\nlong for destiny?\u2026<\/p>\n

Oh, not because happiness exists,
\nthat over-hasty profit from imminent loss,
\nnot out of curiosity, or to practice the heart,
\nwhich could exist in the laurel\u2026
\nBut because being here is much, and because all
\nthat\u2019s here seems to need us, the ephemeral, that
\nstrangely concerns us. We: the most ephemeral. Once,
\nfor each thing, only once. Once, and no more. And we too,
\nonce. Never again. But this
\nonce, to have been, though only once,
\nto have been an earthly thing \u2014 seems irrevocable.<\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\n

Earth, is it not this that you want: to rise
\ninvisibly in us? \u2014 Is that not your dream,
\nto be invisible, one day? \u2014 Earth! Invisible!
\nWhat is your urgent command if not transformation?
\nEarth, beloved, I will. O, believe me, you need
\nno more Spring-times to win me: only one,
\nah, one, is already more than my blood can stand.
\nNamelessly, I have been truly yours, from the first.
\nYou were always right, and your most sacred inspiration
\nis that familiar Death.
\nSee I live. On what? Neither childhood nor future
\ngrows less\u2026 Excess of being
\nwells up in my heart.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Ren\u00e9 Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist considered the greatest lyric poet of modern Germany. Born in Prague on Dec. 4, 1875, he grew up in a middle-class milieu he called “petit bourgeois,” of which he later felt ashamed; <\/em>died on Dec. 29, 1926. Rilke is widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets. His work is marked by a mystical sense of God and death. He wrote both verse and highly lyrical prose.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why, if it could begin as laurel, and be spent so,
\nthis space of Being, a little darker than all
\nthe surrounding green, with little waves at the edge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":175990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-175989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}