Holden, PH - Rilke on Paris- 2 Letters From Duino (Books Abroad v27n1 1953)

7/29/2019 Holden, PH - Rilke on Paris- 2 Letters From Duino (Books Abroad v27n1 1953)

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University of Oklahoma

Rilke on Paris: Two Letters from DuinoAuthor(s): Peter H. OldenSource: Books Abroad, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Winter, 1953), pp. 33-35Published by: Board of Regents of the University of OklahomaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40091542

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R i l k e o n P a r i sT w o L e t t e r s F r o m D u i n oBy PETER H. OLDEN

^TpHESEwo letters, heretofore npublished,JLdatefroma periodwhen Rilke was underthe personalas well as the philosophicalnflu-ence of Kassner and, throughhim,of Kierke-gaard). Kassner had cast such a spell overhim as perhapsno other manhad done in allhis life, except Rodin. In one of his letters,writtenin the year 1911,he describeshis re-actionson readingKassner'sDie ElementedermenschlichenGrosseat one sitting, in theLuxembourgGardenshe loved so well. Heexclaims,"Iaskmyself, s not thismanperhapsthemost mportant f all of us who arewritingtoday . . ."; he admireshim for "movingaway from sanctitywhich (one suspects)hemight attain";while in another etterhe de-scribes"the sereneradiance f his being,"andcalls him "reallythe only man with whomI canget anywhere,"-perhapsbetterrenderedas: "theonly one to whom it occurs that hemight draw some little advantagefrom thefeminine n me."(Briejeaus den Jahren1907bis 1914,pp. 133, 188.)RilkekepthisapartmentnParis or a whileafter he finishedhis work there.However,hewas on atripto Germanywhen Kassnerwrotethat he was sending him a young lady, acousinof his,whowasplanning o studypaint-ing with the Belgian neo-ImpressionistRys-selberghe.Kassner skedhim to be "available"in case she should need help duringher firstdaysin Paris (ibid., p. 139).Kassners cousin(the motherof the presentwriter) arrived,but was afraid of disturbingthe already amouspoetat the time when shewas trying to find her way around in thestrangecity. She had no idea thathe had re-turned from a journeyon her account,northat he was not planningto stay.When shefinallywent to see him, Rilke had just left.She wrote o him and the first etterbelowwashis answer. It is dated "Castle Duino nearTrieste" and may have been the first letterRilke ever wrote from the place he was toimmortalizen the title of the Elegies.Before he second etterwaswritten, he firsttwo Elegieshad come into beingand Kassnerhad visited his old friend,PrincessMarievonThurn und Taxis,at her castle. The princess

has left an amusing descriptionof Rilke andKassnerreturningfrom long walks, with alook of terrorcreeping nto Rilke'seyeswhenhis friend,in his incomparably igorous wayof talking, damned the whole world to per-dition. Kassner,paralyzed n both legs (andwalking with the help of two sticksand hispowerful arms), was a lonely man; he mayhave spokento Rilke of his desire to adopthis cousin'slittle daughter,a child of eight.In anycase, he second etterends with a para-graphin which Rilke was perhaps rying tocarryout amission: ohelp persuadeheyoungdivorcee to part from her eldest child. Thisparagraphontainsa word aboutKassner hatone fully appreciatesnly when rememberingRilke'sviews on love,especiallyhoseconcern-ing man's (in contrast to woman's) unde-velopedcapacity or it. That Kassnerwas con-stantlyon his mind while he wrote the letteris indicatednot only by the repeatedmentionof his name,but by the word "dilettantism"in quotationmarks a reference o Kassner'sbook of that title and later by the paren-thesis"fromMoravia,bytheway,"a referenceto the provinceof Kassner's irth.The chief interestof theseletters,however,lies in Rilke'sglowing descriptionsof Paris,and in his attempt o makethisyoungwoman,whom he had never met, love Paris as heloved it. Rilke,whose prejudiceagainstcitiesand city life was ingrained,and who was toconcludehis own life in the lonelinessof suchplacesasDuinoandMuzot,knewall thesame,and neverdenied,how much he reallyowedto Paris.

Castle Duino near TriesteAdria, Austrian CoastOctober23, 1911Dear Madam:

Really, I am very sorry that we missedeachother.In ParisI expectedto hear fromyou any day from the 26th of Septemberon; I finally left on October 12th; your let-ter (which I find here on my arrival) bearsthe date of the 14th.Such a pity.


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RILKE ON PARIS 35Castle Duino near NabresinaFebruarys 1912Dear Madam:

So it's still rue de la Grande-Chaumiere,- but then, as you see, I am still at Duino.Your letter came by the most direct route,there is no thought of my being in eitherVienna or Munich. I am like Charles theTwelfth :when I once settle down in a place,I have to be smoked out, otherwise I won'tleave. Would to God that I shared a fewof the other qualities of this great king,some small trait, such as the stubborn de-termination to move and act which tookhold of him when he finallyhad to go; thenit certainly was necessaryfor him to rideaway with the same determination andsingleness of purposehe had shown in re-maining bound to a particular place, onlythe two togetherform some sortof entirety,and if life does not become an entiretynowand then, in one manner or another, it isonly "dilettantism."But as you see, the continuous isolationhere between storm and stone makes onepensive, and I shall be careful to avoid de-pressing you with my brooding; on theotherhand, the tone of your letter indicatesthat, in general, you are well pleased withParis,that in spite of her shortcomings youfind your spirit in harmony with hers; foryou can hardly say anything better aboutParis than that it is "easy"to work thereof what other large city can that be said,I'd like to know. Don't, in any event, leavetoo earlyin the spring;to live therethroughthe winter which brings so much that isdark and dismal, and then not to rewardoneself with the clear, wide, open springwhich contradicts all that went before,which reachesdown into the narrowestcor-ners of gray remembranceand cleans themout with a light breeze as from the fatcheeks of a putto which uses all the win-dow panesto aim shimmeringraysatplaceswhich the natural broad sunbeam neverthinksof entering;a springwhich fills witha torrent of space the immense river bedof the Champs-Elyseesand distributes over

the thousandfold delta of the city a light-filled spaciousnesswhich, in the evenings,flows gently into the heavens ; this, andmuch more than this is the spectacle towhich you arenow earning the priceof ad-mission, and you must not leave for anyreason whatsoeverbefore the curtain rises,for what you see and sometimes don't en-tirely understand isn't finished yet; it is astage costume temporarilyheld togetherbya few pins, not even a rehearsal of a re-hearsal:when it comes to the real perform-ance everything will be done differently.

And, moreover,I believe Kassner is dueto arrive n the spring.Right ?As far as I amconcerned,you can imagine that with theconvictionI have, I often ask myself wheth-erI too should not returnin the nearfuture,perhaps, perhaps; all is still in a state offlux and I don'twant to press t into definiteplans, let it come if it has the power and theright.O yes, the card at New Year's I under-stood immediately, I know the excitementof such discoveries,have often become in-volved in them myself; only last year,whata singular stroke of luck it was to find thelife of a granduncle (from Moravia,by theway) treated lovingly and touchingly inseveralcolumns of an old encyclopediathatfascinatesme greatly.I had only known hisname, which came to life and began tobreathe, ust as certaintypesof small mosseswhich look dryas a skeleton suddenlygrowerect and look like something when thefriendly rain has fallen.Kassner must tell me of these joys whenwe see each other again. That you do notwish to give away your little daughterI canwell understand; nevertheless, he couldgreatlyfurtherthe developmentof the child,he who has so much love in his heart, loverich in practicalpossibilities, ove not mere-ly on deposit, earning only a little year byyear, but a fountain of love ever flowing.

Now, good-bye,with bestwishes, and theassuranceof my sinceredevotion,from your,R. M. Rilke

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Holden, PH - Rilke on Paris- 2 Letters From Duino (Books Abroad v27n1 1953)