{"id":142,"date":"2010-11-19T18:43:59","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/?p=142"},"modified":"2010-11-19T18:43:59","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:43:59","slug":"three-rilke-translations-by-seamus-heaney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/2010\/142\/poems\/three-rilke-translations-by-seamus-heaney\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Rilke Translations by Seamus Heaney"},"content":{"rendered":"

published in London Review of Books, May 5 2005<\/em><\/p>\n

Rilke: The Apple Orchard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Come just after the sun has gone down, watch
\nThis deepening of green in the evening sward:
\nIs it not as if we’d long since garnered
\nAnd stored within ourselves a something which<\/p>\n

From feeling and from feeling recollected,
\nFrom new hope and half-forgotten joys
\nAnd from an inner dark infused with these,
\nIssues in thoughts as ripe as windfalls scattered<\/p>\n

Under trees here like trees in a D\u00fcrer woodcut –
\nPendent, pruned, the husbandry of years
\nGravid in them until the fruit appears –
\nReady to serve, replete with patience, rooted<\/p>\n

in the knowledge that no matter how above
\nMeasure or expectation, all must be
\nHarvested and yielded, when a long life willingly
\nCleaves to what’s willed and grows in quiet resolve.<\/p>\n

Rilke: After the Fire<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early autumn morning hesitated,
\nShying at newness, an emptiness behind
\nScorched linden trees still crowding in around
\nThe moorland house, now just one more wallstead<\/p>\n

Where youngsters in a pack from god knows where
\nWent rip-roaring wild and yelled and wrecked.
\nYet all of them fell silent when he appeared,
\nThe son of the place, and with along forked stick<\/p>\n

Dragged an out of shape old can or kettle
\nFrom under hot, charred, half-consumed house-beams;
\nAnd then, like one with a doubtful tale to tell,
\nTurned to the others present, at great pains<\/p>\n

To make them realise what had stood so.
\nFor now that it was gone, it all seemed
\nFar stranger: more fantastical than Pharaoh.
\nAnd he was changed: as from a far-off land.<\/p>\n

Rilke: Roman Campagna<\/strong><\/p>\n

Out of the sluggish, clogged-up city, which
\nWould rather sleep on, undisturbed, and dream
\nof its soaring baths, the road to the fever marsh –
\nThe Appian tomb-road – heads past each last farm<\/p>\n

And farmhouse, out under the malign
\nGaze of windows that fasten on its back,
\nUnnerving it, driving it, ram-stam, on
\nUntil, imploring, out of breath, in panic<\/p>\n

And with a quick look backwards, to make sure
\nThe windows have stopped watching, it entrusts
\nIts emptiness to the skies. And as the far<\/p>\n

Aqueducts come striding up, alerted,
\nThe skies that have absorbed its emptiness
\nNow substitute their own. Which will outlast it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

published in London Review of Books, May 5 2005 Rilke: The Apple Orchard Come just after the sun has gone down, watch This deepening of green in the evening sward: Is it not as if we’d long since garnered And stored within ourselves a something which From feeling and from feeling recollected, From new hope […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-4-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}