when i look deep in your eyes, i swear i can see your soul
out of sight,
your deep dark secrets
ebb and flow like the tide
but all that i see
are infinite spectrums of possibility
when i look deep in your eyes, i swear i can reach your soul
i love the infinite distances
that exist between us.
with persistence, our reach
will be enough.
when i look deep in your eyes, i swear i can touch your soul
guardians of each other’s solitude,
sheltering, yet giving wing,
we are free to take flight in
that beautiful touch of the other
“whole and before an immense sky.”
when i look deep in your eyes, i swear i can feel your soul
from the inexpressible unity of
life death, heaven earth, you me
rises this delicious nourishing love
giving the flowers strength,
setting us both ablaze, eternally.
when i look deep in your eyes, i swear i can see your soul
sometimes …
§
·
Thanks to James and Rilke for the inspiration, motif, and some of the words.
·
James – “Sometimes” from Laid [WorldCat entry].
Rilke, Rainer Maria. 2005. The Poet’s Guide to Life: The Wisdom of Rilke. Trans. Ulrich Baer. New York: Modern Library. [WorldCat entry]
·
Sometime prior to October of last year, I was inspired to begin a series of poems that were inspired by one or more lines from songs. This is the 1st one to be completed.
The 1st stanza is pretty much all me, while the rest are based on the letters of Rilke. Much of the Rilke material comes from a section of a letter that (in one translation) begins:
In marriage, the point is not to achieve a rapid union by tearing down and toppling all boundaries. Rather, in a good marriage each person appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude … (36).
Most places on the Internet cite this (if they cite it at all) as coming from Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. That is simply not true. Perhaps as (one of) his best known prose work it just gets the nod, but it is from the above collection and is from a letter dated August 17, 1901 to Emanuel von Bodman.
There is another translation also on the Internet which is what sent me after this in the first place. It was quite a bit of work to finally track this down, and I had the assistance of another librarian to do so. Some day I may write a lengthy post on these kinds of issues [I certainly had meant to long before now].
The Internet served me well in turning me on to the wonderful sentiments expressed by Rilke. And then it proceeded to routinely deceive me as to the source of said sentiments. The Internet can be a wonderful thing. It can also be horrible in that people (knowingly or not) lie.
Through it all I just keep trying to string a few words together.
3 responses so far ↓
1 ranger // Mar 17, 2009 at 6:25 am
There’s a James song that has that same line in it. Ignoramous that I am, I never realized it was from Rilke.
2 Mark // Mar 17, 2009 at 7:22 am
Now, now, ranger! You are not an ignoramus; I may have just confused you. Or you saw something I missed, making me the ignoramus.
The structure/outline of the poem, the whole “when i look deep in your eyes, i swear …,” came from the James song and inspired me to write something.
I wrote the 1st stanza but also happened to be reading/had recently read Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet and came across some interesting commentary by Rilke in a couple places on the Internet. All of which were mis-attributed to the wrong source. I did some research–with some help–and found the correct source.
Stanza 2 and 3 came from/are inspired by that paragraph. Stanza 4 came from from the 2 later bits in The Poet’s Guide to Life; i.e., from fragments of letters he wrote.
So I don’t think the James song–unless you mean a different song–contains any direct Rilke lines. If you do mean a different song and can find/remember it, please let me know.
3 Mark // May 6, 2009 at 6:24 pm
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