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Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo
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Featured August 10 , 2006
Raina Maria Rilke's famous poem and the ancient torso in the Louvre that inspired it.
Dedicated to Helia Lupens
 Male torso, marble (perhaps Parian), from the island of Miletos, "Severe" early classical style. c 480-470 BC. The Louvre, Paris. Photo © R.M.N./H. Lewandowski ARCHAIC TORSO OF APOLLO We did not know the incredible head in which his ripened eyeballs blazed. Yet here his torso glows, an ancient chandelier in which his gaze, set lower but not dead, still holds and gleams. Or else the chest curve could not blind you, neither in the slight bend of the loins could a smile descend to center where regeneration stood. This stone would then stand stunted and deformed under shoulders of translucent grace, not shining like some predatory pelt at night nor breaking all its bounds with light like some bright star: for nowhere is a place that does not stare at you and say: Reform! Translated by Winslow Shea 1980 ©2006 ARCHAÏSCHER TORSO APOLLOS Wir kannten nicht sein unerhörtes Haupt, darin die Augenäpfel reiften. Aber sein Torso glüht noch wie en Kandelaber, in dem sein Schauen, nur zurückgeschraubt, sich hält und glänzt. Sonst könnte nicht der Bug der Brust dich blenden, und im leisen Drehen der Lenden könnte nicht ein Lächeln gehen zu jener Mitte, die die Zeugung trug. Sonst stünde dieser Stein entstellt und kurz unter der Schultern durchsichtigem Sturz und flimmerte nicht so wie Raubtierfelle; und bräche nicht aus allen seinen Rändern aus wie ein Stern: denn da ist keine Stelle, die dich nicht sieht. Du musst dein Leben ändern. “Dedicated to my great friend, Auguste Rodin” from Neue Gedichte, 1908 =================================== When posted on the Greek Sculpture thread at AncientWorlds, this article stirred up a flurry of criticism & commentary, with three replies by me that illuminate how Rilke's relationship to Rodin led to his visiting the Louvre torso & creating this poem. To read them, click HERE |
Library
~ Table of Contents ~
TYCHE & OEDIPUS
Adonis & Aphrodite Fatal Boar Hunts, Fatal Loves: Meleager & Adonis A Valentine for Camille Flammarion The Met returns its Euphronios vase! Camille Flammarion: Romantic Astronomer The Fountains of Enceladus The Eye of God Is Ganymede the Boy from Marathon Bay? THE ANCIENT OLYMPIEIA FESTIVAL AT ATHENS Which satyr would you choose... The Marathon Boy and the Satyr Contrapossto from Praxiteles to Rubens and Playboy The Afternoon of a Faun The Dancing Satyr - A Lost Bronze of Praxiteles? Hermes, The Liar Who Invented the Lyre Inanna, Queen of Uruk Inanna Adored: The Uruk Vase The Moon-God Nanna-Sin Visits his Ziggurat at Ur Apollo Sauroktonos, or How the Romans Killed the Lizard-Killer Jacob's Ladder Inanna and the Harrowing of Hell Lilith: Wild Demon of Sex and Death DUMUZI FEEDS INANNA'S SHEEP The Sun God in his Dragon Boat A Stairway to Heaven: The Ziggurat at Ur Lassalle's Post-Modern Male Torso Brancusi's Torsos: Pure Platonic Forms? Brancusi on Men and Women: Take the Tate Test? Four Gods Greet the Rising Sun God Aita, the Etruscan Hades Socrates' Apology: The Background A FATEFUL CHARIOT RACE: The STORY of PELOPS and OENOMAUS |
