You Who Never Arrived by Rainer Maria Rilke You who never arrived in my arms, Beloved, who were lost from the start, I don't even know what songs would please you. I have given up trying to recognize you in the surging wave of the next moment. All the immense images in me-- the far-off, deeply-felt landscape, cities, towers, and bridges, and unsuspected turns in the path, and those powerful lands that were once pulsing with the life of the gods- all rise within me to mean you, who forever elude me.
You, Beloved, who are all the gardens I have ever gazed at, longing. An open window in a country house--, and you almost stepped out, pensive, to meet me.
Streets that I chanced upon,-- you had just walked down them and vanished.
And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors were still dizzy with your presence and, startled怔 gave back my too-sudden image. Who knows? perhaps the same bird echoed through both of us yesterday, seperate, in the evening.
Rilke’s You Who Never Arrived is a poem of two stanzas that deals with his mystical longing for glimpses of his elusive Beloved. The poet here is not shown to be struggling to find his one true love, but has accepted the face that Beloved will forever remain tantalisingly close, but just out of his reach. The poet says that his Beloved was lost even before the start. This is indicative of the fact that he has never met her. But he continues by saying that she resides within him and has constructed a whole world, complete with landscape, cities, towers, and bridges, in his soul. He equalises her with his soul and credits the power that pulses within him, making him alive, to her. But, he lives with the longing to someday meet her, yet accepting the fact that she is forever going to elude him and that he will never find her in reality.
This is what makes her this ideal. “Who knows? Perhaps the same bird echoed through both of us, yesterday, separate, in the evening… “, this phrase tells us that the poet might actually believe that his beloved lives within him as the same voice echoes within them at the same time. They are together, yet they are not. The poet laments the fact that he doesn’t even have a lost love that he can mourn, because he has never met his Beloved to experience real love blossoming within them. The poet chooses to live with the phantasm of a lost love, than to not dream at all.
in my arms, Beloved, who were lost
from the start,
I don't even know what songs
would please you.
I have given up trying
to recognize you in the surging wave of the next
moment.
All the immense
images in me-- the far-off, deeply-felt landscape,
cities, towers, and bridges, and unsuspected
turns in the path,
and those powerful lands that were once
pulsing with the life of the gods-
all rise within me to mean
you, who forever elude me.
You, Beloved, who are all
the gardens I have ever gazed at,
longing.
An open window
in a country house--, and you almost
stepped out, pensive, to meet me.
Streets that I chanced upon,--
you had just walked down them and vanished.
And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors
were still dizzy with your presence and, startled怔
gave back my too-sudden image.
Who knows?
perhaps the same bird echoed through both of us
yesterday, seperate, in the evening.
那个从来没有降临过的你
你 那个从来都没能够
降临到我怀抱里的 你 亲爱的 还没有开始
便已经失去了的你
我都还不知道
什么样的歌声能讨得你的欢心
我已经放弃 不会在涛涛的下一波浪潮里 去找寻你
我心中的那些盛大的景象 — 遥远的 熟悉的风景
城市 高楼 桥梁 还有那些出乎意料的
弯道 和坚强的
曾经和远古众神一起呼吸过的 土地
所有的这一切 在我的心中呈现
都指向了你 那个
永远逃避着我的 你
你 我亲爱的 是所有那些
我凝视过的 并渴望拥有的 花园
那间窗户敞开着的
乡间屋舍 — 你几乎就要从门内姗姗而出
沉思间，与我相见
那些我偶尔光顾的街道 —
你刚刚从街上走过，背影消失在街角
还有的时候 在店里 那些镜子们
还沉浸在你出现过的余晕里 一下子怔住
因为我身影的骤然闪现
谁知道呢
也许 昨天是同一只鸟的回声穿过了你和我
在不同的地方 黄昏里
附：
Rilke’s You Who Never Arrived is a poem of two stanzas that deals with his mystical longing for glimpses of his elusive Beloved. The poet here is not shown to be struggling to find his one true love, but has accepted the face that Beloved will forever remain tantalisingly close, but just out of his reach. The poet says that his Beloved was lost even before the start. This is indicative of the fact that he has never met her. But he continues by saying that she resides within him and has constructed a whole world, complete with landscape, cities, towers, and bridges, in his soul. He equalises her with his soul and credits the power that pulses within him, making him alive, to her. But, he lives with the longing to someday meet her, yet accepting the fact that she is forever going to elude him and that he will never find her in reality.
This is what makes her this ideal. “Who knows? Perhaps the same bird echoed through both of us, yesterday, separate, in the evening… “, this phrase tells us that the poet might actually believe that his beloved lives within him as the same voice echoes within them at the same time. They are together, yet they are not. The poet laments the fact that he doesn’t even have a lost love that he can mourn, because he has never met his Beloved to experience real love blossoming within them. The poet chooses to live with the phantasm of a lost love, than to not dream at all.
https://beamingnotes.com/2016/05/05/never-arrived-analysis/
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