I notice you in all these things

After Rilke

Today’s post translates (somewhat freely) an early poem of Rilke’s, from his 1905 The Book of Hours (Das Stunden-Buch).¹

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I notice you in all these things,
those I am good and like a brother to;
like a seed you bask in what is lowly,
in what is tall you give yourself up.

That is the amazing play of forces,
to travel like a nutrient through things:
widening in roots, diminishing in trunks
and in the treetops like a resurrection.

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Ich finde dich in allen diesen Dingen, 
denen ich gut und wie ein Bruder bin; 
als Samen sonnst du dich in den geringen 
und in den großen giebst du groß dich hin. 

Das ist das wundersame Spiel der Kräfte, 
dass sie so dienend durch die Dinge gehn: 
in Wurzeln wachsend, schwindend in die Schäfte 
und in den Wipfeln wie ein Auferstehn. 

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1. The second line of the second stanza could with equal rhythmic fidelity be rendered quite accurately as “That travel in such servitude through things.” Nevertheless, for obscure reasons, I prefer my version. Why “nutrient,” with its the root in nutrix/“nursemaid,” should convey to me, more powerfully than the literal “servitude,” the required sense of humble devotion, I cannot say.