The poems of Rainer Maria Rilke were written in a lyrically intense German. Here our translator poet Timothy Adès brings us one of Rilke’s poems of Spring, on Day 502 of the daily new poems.
Spring
by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
translated from German by Timothy Adês
Spring has a hundred wonders
and now I’ll make it known.
Spring’s place is in the woodlands,
it doesn’t come to town.
Only the couples hand in hand
who go adventuring
far from the city’s chilly lanes
can hope to see the spring.
Rainer Maria Rilke
trans. Timothy Adês