Lot n° 114
Estimation :
1000 - 1500
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 14 950EUR
RILKE (Rainer-Maria). 3 autographed letters, 2 of which to A - Lot 114
RILKE (Rainer-Maria). 3 autographed letters, 2 of which to ANDRÉ GIDE. 1914-1926. Attached, an envelope signed on the back addressed to André Gide. - TO ANDRÉ GIDE. Paris, February 18, 1914. "BUT, MY DEAR GIDE, I WOULD BE DELIGHTED IN THE MOST HEAVENLY SENSE OF THE WORD, IF ONE DAY THERE WOULD BE A TRANSLATION OF CHRISTOPHE RILKE BY YOU, dear friend [Gide had proposed translating Rilke's prose poem The Melody of Love and Death by Cornet Christoph Rilke into French, but did not complete the undertaking], but I would never have dreamed nor hoped for anything so beautiful. In the first place, I am sure you would make it a marvel : in the first place because it is you, and then because you understand me as IT IS RARE TO BE UNDERSTOOD IN POETRY BY A MIND WHICH AGITATES AND CALLS ITSELF IN THE ELEMENT OF ANOTHER LANGUAGE (for in the end we come to a certain identity of expression and ideas, and sometimes I think to myself that a thing which, for example, is called "Haus" cannot be called "casa" by another, that one of the two must be wrong), and, finally, no one but you could penetrate and render what is more or less (it seems to me) the only quality of this early poem : that is, the all-inward rhythm, the rhythm of the blood that runs through it, that carries it, that carries it from one end to the other, without a moment's hesitation and uncertainty. The other night, reading the Italian translation, I remembered that dreamy night when I wrote those pages, astonished, almost in spite of myself, delighted by the speed of this adolescent grandfather who, with his cheeks still warm from childhood, crosses over into love to find death, the apotheosis of death - dazzled! Ah, how far away it is, dear Gide, that one could indulge in such a storm, without asking for anything, without noticing any difficulty, in a single night, and in the morning hardly knowing if perhaps one had not slept deeply. So, thank you for your intention, which seems great and generous to me, but don't let it weigh you down: you will do it or not, according to the seasons of your being, of which we never know anything in advance. It is already such a complete joy for me to smell the perfume of the flowering possibility... "It was André Gide who introduced Rainer Maria Rilke to Parisian literary and artistic circles. - To Jean Gérard, director of the] Librairie centrale in Basel. Clinique de Valmont near Montreux in the Vaud region [of Switzerland], January 9, 1926. « ... It must be... a misunderstanding: I have never translated anything into French. But a volume of poems written in French is being prepared by the Nouvelle Revue Française... INTITLED "VERGERS" [which] is to be published very soon. Apart from that, there will be, quite soon also, a French translation, complete this time of MY BOOKS & AUTOGRAPHS THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 137BOOOKS & AUTOGRAPHS THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 138PROMOTIONAL BOOK "DIE AUFZEICHNUNGEN DES MALTE LAURIDS BRIGGE" (THE HANDBOOKS OF MR. L. BRIGGE), this translation was made by M. Maurice Betz and is to be published by Émile-Paul frères [extracts from this work, the only novel by Rainer-Maria Rilke, had appeared in French translations by André Gide in the Nrf in 1911, and by Maurice Betz at Stock in 1923]... "TO ANDRÉ GIDE. Château de Muzot at Sierre in the Valais, Switzerland, July 10, 1926. "My dear Gide, I had learned of your return the day I sent you "VERGERS", by a letter from Charles Du Bos. All that you must have felt, done, undergone and overcome, while my occupation during all these long months is reduced to having made a pact with one of those rooms which, under the pretext of being clean, persist in remaining nobody's room. I was not even lucky enough to have been "very sick" (which would have allowed me to find a convalescent slope), FOR A LONG TIME I HAVE BEEN IN A CRIMINAL POINT OF INEXPLICABLE DISEASE: TO GET OUT OF IT I WOULD HAVE TO RETURN TO MY STEPS, OR SOME BUILDING WOULD HAVE TO BE DEMOLISHED IN FRONT OF ME. Both solutions seem equally difficult. But all that for the moment is forgotten, in the face of these consenting words you tell me about "Vergers". They remain precious to me among all. IF THIS LITTLE BOOK WEIGHS IN YOUR HANDS THE WEIGHT OF A FLOWER... (THAT IS JUST ENOUGH TO BE REMEMBERED WHILE FALLING), ITS REALITY MUST BE THAT OF THE JOY I HAD IN MAKING IT. But did I? My happy surprise was that I was able to receive all this, that I was young enough to make this delightfully offered verbal youth better. FOR YOU CANNOT IMAGINE, DEAR GIDE, HOW MUCH ACTIVE OBEDIENCE TO THIS ADMIRED LANGUAGE HAS REJUVENATED ME. EACH WORD, BY ALLOWING ME TO USE IT AT MY EASE AND ACCORDING TO MY PRACTISING TRUTH, BROUGHT ME I KNOW NOT WHAT PRIMEUR OF USE. It looked so little like work, and yet it involved
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