RE: The Russians and Rilke [was Re: 1999 Nobel Prize in Literatur e:
Mattis Fishman (mattis@argos.argoscomp.com)
Thu, 21 Oct 1999 09:51:39 -0400 (EDT)
Cecilia writes:
>And now for my last confession. In a fit of love for the man, I transcribed
>his letters and put them up on my, er, website. I'm no programmer and
>you're not going to find any bells and whistles, but if you have ever been
>curious about them, you can find them at:
>
>http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/5596/rilke/rilke.htm
Thank you very much Cecilia for the link, which I include again on the
off chance that some of our members did not immediately jam the internet
stampeding to read those letters.
(While I'm at it, thanks, too, for the story about the plaque on Michigan Ave.)
In one of those demonstrations of our incredible shrinking universe,
I did not have to go far into RMR's first letter to find a few lines which
touch on a subject that has been very prominent around here:
Things are not as easily understood nor as expressible as people
usually would like us to believe. Most happenings are beyond expression;
they exist where a word has never intruded. Even more inexpressible
are works of art; mysterious entities they are, whose lives, compared to
our fleeting ones, endure.
Perhaps a romantic point of view to be expected from a poet, as opposed to
the philosophical and analytical dissertations that have been in the
foreground. Still, I prefer to spend my few minutes of contemplation
looking for those places "where a word has never intruded" and exorcising them
from the places where they have.
all the best,
Mattis