Rilke's "Autumn Day" and displacement by choice--

It's a chilly and October-ish 35 degrees this morning as I write to you. Finally. I got the beans pulled up yesterday, but it started to rain seriously, so the tomatoes got a reprieve. I'll get to them this week. It was nearly 80 degrees yesterday, a glorious, almost too-warm day. I opened the windows and cleaned the house-- it felt good to get things sorted and dusted. But not today. Today will bring baking and making herbed butter to freeze. Fall domesticity reigns. 



I'm still thinking about displacement since yesterday, though, but a voluntary remove from society. One of my favorite poems is one by Rainer Maria Rilke, as translated by Edward Snow. It is titled, in English, "Autumn Day," but in German, it is "Herbsttag." It seems like just about every scholar out there (yes, a hyperbole) has translated this poem, but I have my favorite translations among the offerings (how nerdy of me?)--

The part I love the best is the first line:

"Lord, it is time." 

As if we have a choice? Maybe an agreement with God about the seasons? Is it a small act of hubris, or is it resignation? Or even a request? I prefer to think it's a mix of all of those things. 

The final stanza is both heart-wrenching and relatable:

"Who has no house now, will never build one.
Who is alone now, will long remain so,
will stay awake, read, write long letters
and will wander restlessly up and down
the tree-lines streets, when the leaves are drifting."

The solitude that the speaker is referring to is sad, for some, but maybe not so much for the solitary speaker. I would like to think that I would be the one who was resigned to the change in season, to the enforced solitary pursuits, to "stay awake, read, write long letters" throughout the chillier days. But the tone shifts again, a small volta, where the person who is alone will "wander restlessly up and down"-- the scene is one I can hear, and smell, and feel in my soul. 

Leaf-scuffing, musing, sniffing for wisps of woodsmoke... yes, Lord, it is time.

Have a good day,

C

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