In the eyes of a dumb beast
I glimpsed deep peace
nature’s impartial feast
offered without surcease.
To fear all creatures respond.
Yet animals know how
on the hunt to browse
on the here and now
which tastes of nothing beyond.
After Rainer Maria Rilke (original in French, Vergers n° 54 Pléiade p. 1007)
J’ai vu dans l’œil animal
la vie paisible qui dure,
le calme impartial
de l’imperturbable nature.
La bête connaît la peur ;
mais aussitôt elle avance
et sur son champ d’abondance
broute une présence,
qui n’a pas le goût d’ailleurs.
*
Rainer Maria Rilke as a French poet? In Ellipse 50 (2001, pp 82-93). with which journal I had collaborated since 1976, I made the following observation: “Alas, neither in Canada nor in Québec have there been many poets who produced an interesting body of work in two languages, at least not to my taste. So to help close this chapter of Ellipse (the final North Hatley/Shebrooke issue) let me adduce two poems, composed directly in French by Rilke himself. Those who know his poetry in German, especially the Duino Elegies, will recognize a strangely familiar voice.” The poem to Marina Tsvetaeva is his dedication of a copy of the Duino Elegies to her. < Correspondance à trois: Rilke, Pasterak, Tsvetaeva (Gallimard 1983), p 9.