Archaic Torso of Apollo (Rilke translation)

Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

 
We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within, while his composed will
emanates dynamism. Otherwise
the firmly muscled abdomen could not beguile us,
nor the centering loins make us smile
at the thought of their generative animus.
Otherwise the stone might seem deficient,
unworthy of the broad shoulders, of the groin
projecting procreation's triangular spearhead upwards,
unworthy of the living impulse blazing wildly within
like an inchoate star―demanding our belief.

You must change your life.

Rainer Maria Rilke became a personal secretary to the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, who in turn became an influence on Rilke's work. Indeed, Neue Gedichte (part 2), the book of poems which contains "Archaischer Torso Apollos," was dedicated to Rodin. According to Mark Doty: "Rilke felt that his own earlier poems were airy, disembodied. He got himself a job working for the sculptor Rodin, whose very fleshy, highly physicalized forms were enormously attractive to him. He wanted to write poems with the same kind of muscularity and physical presence as Rodin's sculptures." I think we can see Rilke's new approach to writing poetry in the Torso poem. I believe Rilke was telling himself: "You must change your life, if you want to be a real poet." Keywords/Tags: Rilke, Rodin, Art, Sculpture, Poetry, God, Apollo, Torso, Trunk, Groin, Loins, Eyes, Vision, Light, Glow, Glows, Glowing, Star, Dynamic, Dynamism, Belief, Life