Rainer Maria Rilke's 'Stillung Mariä Mit Dem Auferstandenen' (Consolation Of Mary With The Risen Christ)

Was sie damals empfanden: ist es nicht
vor allen Geheimnissen süß
und immer noch irdisch:
da er, ein wenig blaß noch vom Grab,
erleichtert zu ihr trat:
an allen Stellen erstanden.
O zu ihr zuerst. Wie waren sie da
unaussprechlich in Heilung.
Ja sie heilten, das war´s. Sie hatten nicht nötig,
sich stark zu berühren.
Er legte ihr eine Sekunde
kaum seine nächstens
ewige Hand an die frauliche Schulter.
Und sie begannen
still wie die Bäume im Frühling,
unendlich zugleich,
diese Jahreszeit
ihres äußersten Umgangs.

*

What they experienced at that time:
Was it not sweet above all secrets
and still earthly.
That he, a little pale still from the grave,
stepped toward her unburdened
and wholly resurrected.
Oh ... to her first.
How they were unutterably united in Healing.
Yes, they were healing. That was it.
They had no need to touch each other firmly.
He laid for a second his soon to be eternal hand
on the womanly shoulder.
And they began, quietly, as the trees in Spring,
infinitely together, this season of their
enduringly close communion.

From Rainer Maria Rilke's (1875-1926) Das Marienleban (The Life of Mary), set by the twenty eight year old composer Paul Hindemith in 1922-23. [Corrected] Translation by American soprano Jane Marsh.














Eastern North American Red-bud.

Photo credit: University of Virginia's Historic Blandy Experimental Farm, The State Arboretum of Virginia "The Commonwealth's Public Garden" With thanks.

www.virginia.edu/ blandy/gallery.html