Rilke's Rose

How did a poet from outer space become a pop culture icon and idol of young people in search of themselves? Notes on the 150th anniversary of the birth of Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

The great Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (born December 4, 1874) was a great traveler. In 1919 he came to Switzerland to give a lecture; the real reason was that he wanted to escape the gloomy atmosphere that reigned in Germany and Austria after the end of the First World War.

Near Zurich he met Nanny Wunderly-Volkart (1878–1962), a wealthy, generous, and culturally interested woman. She supported Rilke financially from 1919 until her death, provided him with pleasant places to write and live; this naturally included the service he desired.

Nanny Wunderly-Volkart's relationship with Rilke was full of trust and is documented in their correspondence, published in 1977. At Rilke's request, the Swiss lady even supported his lover, the painter Baladine Klossowska, a divorced and destitute mother of two children. Rilke lived for several years in Switzerland, mainly in the canton of Wallis, where he died on 29 December 1926 and was buried in the village of Raron.

Was Rilke in Davos? This was a question that flashed through my mind as, at the beginning of the month – on December 4, the 150th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke's birth – together with photographer Visar Kryeziu we were going for a walk in Davos, in this famous center of Swiss alpine tourism. The answer is: no, Rilke was not in Davos.

But that's not the whole truth. Rilke was in the canton of Graubünden, which includes Davos. He stayed in the village of Soglio, voted the most beautiful village in Switzerland in 2015. Rilke didn't think so. He didn't like it that much. Professor Manfred Koch, who wrote a nearly 600-page biography of Rilke, recently told an eastern Swiss newspaper that the poet didn't like the mountain landscape. Rilke was a poet of cosmic space (Weltraumdichter) and preferred places with plenty of sky overhead. He called the mountains of the canton of Graubünden "stupid mountains, imposing obstacles, but no wiser than a closed door."

It is no great surprise that Rilke did a good part of his poetic work in the Duino Castle, a village near Trieste, where the future famous German actor Alexander Moisiu, who was of Albanian origin, was born on April 2, 1879. From the balcony, where Rilke wrote some of the Duino Elegies (or Duino Elegies), the view of the Adriatic Sea is imposing. In the Swiss village of Soglio, Rilke lived in the Salis Palace, once the residence of the noble Salis family. Throughout his life, Rilke was fascinated by the world of European nobility. At the Palazzo Salis, Rilke could use the old library, a privilege that few people have even today.

The Duino Elegies are his poetic masterpiece and a challenge for almost every reader. They are strongly connected to the themes of eternity, death, disappearance and the meaning of human existence in the modern era. It took Rilke ten years to write them. Inspiration came to him in early 1912, when in Duino Castle he heard “a voice”, which dictated his first verses. The year 1922 is quite prosperous in terms of literature: that year saw the publication of not only Rilke’s Duino Elegies, but also James Joyce’s epochal novel Ulysses and TS Eliot’s poetic masterpiece The Waste Land.

Rilke spent his life in constant search. In Paris, he was confronted with modernity and misery. There he was inspired for his only novel, The Notes of Malte Laurids Brigge. In the volume of poetry The Book of Hours, Rilke developed a dialogue with God, seeing him as an entity that is formed and dwells within us. In 1905/06, Rilke was secretary to the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Acquaintance with the modern painting of Paul Cézanne influenced Rilke to see the world in its depth. From this view he formulated the famous line “You must change your life” (from the poem “The Archaic Torso of Apollo”). Today, Rilke has become an icon of pop culture and an idol of young people in search of themselves.

On Rilke's tombstone is engraved this note: "Rose, O pure contradiction." For years and decades, readers and literary critics have speculated and wondered where this message comes from. A few years ago, the secret was revealed. On the roof of Duino Castle, the diaries of Rilke's friend, Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis, were found. There she describes the fierce debates with the poet, who wrote the Duino Elegies in her castle. Her Highness Marie von Thurn und Taxis did not like the flowery language in Rilke's poems. "Flowers constantly appear in your poems," she had told Rilke, "here a daffodil, there a camellia, and there a rose. Oh Rainer! I object to this!" This is where the note on Rilke's tombstone originated: "Rose, O pure contradiction"!