Rilke on Preuschen (1896)
On 24 September 1896 the twenty-year-old Rainer Maria Rilke devoted a full critical essay to Preuschen in the Prague Deutsches Abendblatt. It matters twice over: as evidence that one of the century's great poets took her seriously, and as an early statement of the poem-as-picture idea that would occupy him for the rest of his life.
Where to find it
Rainer Maria Rilke, "Hermine von Preuschen," Deutsches Abendblatt (Prague), 24 September 1896; reprinted in Sämtliche Werke, ed. Ernst Zinn for the Rilke-Archiv (Frankfurt: Insel), vol. V, pp. 308–311, under Prosa 1893–1905.
The text
The English is this project's own AI-assisted translation from the German, with no human verification against the original.
Hermine von Preuschen — Verfasserin von ›Tollkraut‹ (Novelletten), ›Regina vitae‹ (Gedichte), ›Via passionis‹ (Gedichte)
Hermine von Preuschen — author of Tollkraut (novellas), Regina vitae (poems), Via passionis (poems)
… Ich habe einmal sagen hören: »Hermine von Preuschen ist vor allem Blumenmalerin.« – Und heute stimme ich diesem Ausspruch bei. Nur will ich das Wort anders verstanden wissen, als es der Alltag gebraucht. Auf den Bildern und in den Büchern spielen die Blumen eine große Rolle. Aber in beiden Fällen sind die Blumen nicht dazu da, ein farbenfrohes, sinniges Milieu zu bilden. Sie stehen immer im Mittelpunkte; Hermine von Preuschen hat ihnen Leben verliehen. Der große Schmerz ihrer Dichterseele fand keinen Raum in der dunklen Brust, und er brach wie ein rauschender Bergstrom in das Weltall hinaus und erfüllte die Herzen der tausend und abertausend Blüten. Und wenn nun die Dichterin klagt, so stimmen all diese tausend Blumen, deren jede ein Stück ihrer Seele trägt, ein großes Mittönen an … und ein Weinen geht durch die Welt. – Zyklamen, weiße Nelken und roter Mohn, Levkojen und Lilien, Astern und Asphodelen – Alle singen es mit, das wechselvolle Chorlied. –
… I once heard it said: "Hermine von Preuschen is above all a painter of flowers1." — And today I agree with that verdict. Only I want the word understood otherwise than everyday usage takes it. In the pictures and in the books the flowers play a great part. But in neither case are the flowers there to make a colourful, agreeable setting. They always stand at the centre; Hermine von Preuschen has given them life. The great pain of her poet's soul found no room in the dark breast, and it broke out like a rushing mountain torrent into the universe and filled the hearts of the thousand and thousands upon thousands of blossoms. And when the poet now laments, all these thousand flowers, each of which carries a piece of her soul, strike up a great sounding-with … and a weeping goes through the world. — Cyclamen, white carnations and red poppy, stocks and lilies, asters and asphodels — all sing it with her, the ever-changing choral song. —
Der Künstlerin Schmerz ist groß genug, all diese Blumen zu beseelen. Sie hat gekämpft und gelitten. Ihr kams: ›erst Traum, dann Schicksal‹. –
›So wie ein Ball geschleudert ward mein Herz Von höchsten Höhen in der Hölle Schlünde‹
The artist's pain is great enough to give soul to all these flowers. She has fought and suffered. For her it came as: "first dream, then fate." —
"Like a ball my heart was hurled2 from the highest heights into the gorges of hell"
sagt sie – und dann spricht sie zu ihrem Herzen:
›Am Boden lagst du krank und todesmüd, In deinen eignen Bränden dich verzehrend.‹
she says — and then she speaks to her heart:
"On the ground you lay sick and weary unto death, consuming yourself in your own burning."
Aber es lodert wieder auf in ihr; nach süßer, stiller Resignation: ›Die blaue Wunderblume blüht uns nie..‹ und: ›..Ruhm und Liebe sind nur Meeresleuchten‹ fragt sie sich: ›Wie aber trägt ein großes Herz den Schmerz?‹ und stolzer, kühner Kampfesmut erfüllt sie:
›..wenn alles Glück zerbrach, Schreit ich aufwärts – ewigkeitgegrüßt!‹
But it flares up in her again; after sweet, quiet resignation: "The blue wonder-flower3 never blooms for us .." and: ".. fame and love are only the sea's phosphorescence" she asks herself: "But how does a great heart carry the pain?" and a prouder, bolder fighting spirit fills her:
".. when all happiness broke apart, I stride upward — greeted by eternity!"
Und die Dichterin schreitet aufwärts zur Vollendung. Wer die ›Via passionis‹ mit ihr gewandert ist, der muß die große Sonnensehnsucht ihrer Seele erkannt haben. Das tiefe, mächtige Empfinden läßt die Dichterin die Welt in gigantischen Formen sehen. Die Sprache ist ihr zu arm. Sagt sie: ›Der große Schmerz‹, so scheint ihr das klein und sie verbessert sich ›Der große, meeresgroße Schmerz‹. Und die Liebe ist ihr ›die große, wundergroße Liebe‹. Die Blumen duften ›schwer, süßeschwer …‹. Der Frühlingswind weht ihr ›wellenkühl‹ entgegen und an den Büschen grüßen sie ›winzig kleine Knospen, deren jede einen Lenz verbirgt‹. Sie sieht eben die Welt anders mit den Maßen ihrer großen Individualität. Den Alltäglichen ist das freilich nicht recht; erbittert ruft sie einem solchen zu: ›Konventionen sollt ich malen, Konventionen sollt ich schreiben …‹
And the poet strides upward toward completion. Whoever has walked the Via passionis with her must have recognised the great sun-longing of her soul. That deep, powerful feeling makes the poet see the world in gigantic forms. Language is too poor for her. If she says "the great pain," that seems small to her and she corrects herself: "the great, sea-great pain."4 And love, for her, is "the great, wonder-great love." The flowers smell "heavy, sweet-heavy …". The spring wind blows toward her "wave-cool," and on the bushes she is greeted by "tiny little buds, each of which hides a spring." She simply sees the world differently, by the measures of her great individuality. To the everyday sort that is of course not acceptable; embittered, she calls out to such a one: "Conventions I should paint, conventions I should write …"
Aber ihnen zum Trotz hat sie ihre eigene selbststolze Art bewahrt. Sie pflückt keinen schlichten Wiesenstrauß, denn:
›Die frommen Blümchen all vom Alltagsweg Blühn nimmer an des Künstlers rauhem Steg, Tollkraut nur wächst seitab vom breiten Pfad…‹
But in defiance of them she has kept her own self-proud manner. She picks no plain meadow bouquet, for:
"The pious little flowers of the everyday road never bloom on the artist's rough track, only tollkraut grows off to the side of the broad path5 …"
›Ein farbenleuchtend wunderholdes Gift‹ ist ihr das Leben und sie sehnt sich nach den ›Purpurblüten‹ vom ›Lebensgiftbaum‹. Eine unendliche Sehnsucht glüht in ihrer Brust. In der Liebe hofft sie Erfüllung. Und die Liebe kommt. Kindischen Jubels voll, geht sie ihr entgegen. Und die ganze Größe des Weibes und der Künstlerin opfert sie ihr. Aber ihr Ziel liegt noch jenseits der Liebe … und in einer Stunde des Zweifels klagt sie dem Geliebten: ›… nicht einmal Deine Liebe erlöst mich‹. Sie ringt nach dieser Erlösung in der Kunst – denn Poesie ist die ›Seele ihres Seins‹.
Life, to her, is "a colour-glowing, wondrously lovely poison," and she longs for the "purple blossoms" of the "life-poison-tree." An endless longing glows in her breast. In love she hopes for fulfilment. And love comes. Full of childlike rejoicing, she goes to meet it. And she sacrifices to it the whole greatness of the woman and of the artist. But her goal lies still beyond love … and in an hour of doubt she laments to the beloved: "… not even your love redeems me." She struggles toward that redemption in art — for poetry is the "soul of her being."
Bei H. v. Preuschen vertragen sich Dichtkunst und Malerei schwesterlich. Sie finden sich auf dem Gebiete der Stimmung. Sie malt ihre herrlichen Gedichte, deren schwerer reimloser Rhythmenfluß wie geschmolzenes Gold hinströmt, und sie dichtet in farbensatten Allegorien auf die Leinwand. In ihrem letzten Buche ›Via passionis‹ (Dresden-Leipzig bei Reissner) kann man den Text finden zu ihren großen Bildern, die augenblicklich in Dresden zu sehen sind und vom 3. Oktober an im Münchner Kunstverein ausgestellt sein werden. Vor diesen Bildern fragt man sich: Ist das Gedicht ein Bild, oder das Bild ein Gedicht?
In H. v. Preuschen, poetry and painting get on together like sisters6. They find each other in the country of mood7. She paints her glorious poems, whose heavy rhymeless flow of rhythm streams on like molten gold, and she writes her poetry in colour-saturated allegories onto the canvas. In her latest book, Via passionis (Dresden-Leipzig, Reissner)8, one can find the text to her great pictures, which are at this moment to be seen in Dresden and from 3 October will be exhibited at the Munich Kunstverein9. Standing before these pictures one asks oneself: is the poem a picture, or the picture a poem?
So ist die Gestalt des ›Asrael‹, jenes großen Bildes von mächtig suggestiver Wirkung, in ›Via passionis‹ Seite 165, die ›Pforte der Zukunft‹ Seite 65 vorgezeichnet. Das Großartigste dieser Schöpfungen ist unzweifelhaft jener Asrael, die Gestalt des Todesengels, der mit bang gefaltetem Flügelpaar auf weißer Marmorbank mitten im leuchtenden Mohnfeld hockt und das eine Auge ›phosphorleuchtend‹ auf der Seele des Beschauers ruhen läßt. … Dekorativ bedeutend ist ›Evoë Bacche‹. Voller Stimmung ›Die Pforte der Zukunft‹ und manche kleinere Landschaft. Die ›Lebenssphinx‹ ist mächtig gedacht, vermag aber trotz der virtuos gemalten Landschaft nicht zu fesseln. Und dann muß H. v. Preuschen sich vor dem Genrehaften hüten – dazu ist sie zu – groß.
So the figure of Asrael, that great picture of powerfully suggestive effect, is prefigured in Via passionis at page 165, and the Gate of the Future at page 65. The most magnificent of these creations is unquestionably that Asrael, the figure of the angel of death10, who crouches with anxiously folded wings on a white marble bench in the middle of a glowing poppy field and lets his one eye rest11 "phosphorescent" upon the soul of the beholder. … Decoratively significant is Evoë Bacche.12 Full of mood, the Gate of the Future and many a smaller landscape. The Life-Sphinx is powerfully conceived, but for all the virtuoso painting of the landscape it fails to hold one. And then H. v. Preuschen must guard against the genre-like — for that she is too — great13.
Jedesfalls tritt uns hier in der Gemahlin des berühmten Konrad Telmann eine großartige Künstlerindividualität, eine edle und geniale Frau entgegen. Und wenn H. v. Preuschen noch vielen fremd sein sollte, so ist das, weil sie ferne steht:
›…. dem Puppenspiel der zahmen Menschheit, deren Herz ein Teich, ein trüber Teich mit flachen, engen Ufern‹ ist. –
In any case, in the wife of the famous Konrad Telmann14 there steps before us a magnificent artistic individuality, a noble and brilliant woman. And if H. v. Preuschen should still be a stranger to many, that is because she stands far off from:
"…. the puppet-play of tame humanity, whose heart is a pond, a murky pond with flat, narrow banks" — such is the thing she stands apart from15. —
Notes
Identifications, period context, and points where the original carries something English cannot. Added by this project; not in the source.
- ↑Hermine von Preuschen is above all a painter of flowers — Rilke opens by conceding the label that was used to diminish her, then spends the review taking it apart. This is the same move the Art Journal writer makes in English six years later, arguing that Death was always in her fruit and flowers. Two critics, independently, refusing to treat the flower painting as the lesser half of her work. (The Art Journal, 1890)
- ↑Like a ball my heart was hurled — Her own verse, quoted by Rilke — he follows it with sagt sie, "she says." Rilke does not attribute the individual quotations to a particular volume. Via passionis is the likeliest, since it is the book under review and he sums the passage up by invoking it, but Regina vitae cannot be ruled out. The English here is ours.
- ↑The blue wonder-flower — The blaue Blume, the blue flower — the central emblem of German Romanticism, from Novalis. It stands for unreachable longing, and by 1896 quoting it was a way of placing oneself in a tradition. Her line denies it outright: the flower never blooms for us.
- ↑"the great, sea-great pain." — German meeresgroß — "sea-great," a compound she coins. Rilke's point is that she reaches for a bigger word, finds none, and manufactures one. German lets a poet weld nouns together like this; English cannot, which is why her intensifiers read as strange rather than grand in translation.
- ↑only tollkraut grows off to the side of the broad path — Tollkraut — literally "mad-herb," a common name for deadly nightshade and related poisonous plants. It is also the title of her novella collection, named in Rilke's heading above, so the line does double work: the poison that grows off the path is both her subject and her book. No English word carries the plant and the madness together.
- ↑like sisters — German schwesterlich, "in a sisterly way" — the word doing the quiet work in the sentence. The two arts are not merely allied but related, of one family, which is exactly what the closing question makes explicit. English has no single adverb for it.
- ↑the country of mood — German auf dem Gebiete der Stimmung. Stimmung is mood, atmosphere, tuning — a central term of German aesthetics in the 1890s, untranslatable by any one English word. Gebiet is a territory, so the image is of two arts meeting on shared ground.
- ↑Via passionis (Dresden-Leipzig, Reissner) — The book Rilke is reviewing — her collection of 1895, published by Reissner. He is explicit that it holds the text to the pictures. His page references point not to identically titled poems but to where each painting is vorgezeichnet — prefigured — in verse, and both check out. Page 65 carries Der Weg zum Friedhof, in which the speaker turns aside toward the dead and finds the great iron gate locked against her: Die Pforte der Zukunft in words. Page 165 falls inside Zwei Bilder, whose second picture is the Asrael.
- ↑from 3 October will be exhibited at the Munich Kunstverein — A dated, located exhibition — Dresden in September 1896, then Munich. Rilke's date was a forecast: the Kunstverein's own list has her 49 paintings on show from Sunday 4 October, and the Prince Regent bought a flower piece of hers there that morning (Allgemeine Zeitung, 4 and 5 October 1896). Precise exhibition data of this kind is scarce for her, and it comes here from a reviewer with no reason to invent it.
- ↑Asrael, the figure of the angel of death — Azrael, the angel of death — and the page reference checks out. Rilke's p. 165 lands mid-poem in "Zwei Bilder" (Two Pictures), which describes two of her canvases in verse. The second is this one, and his prose tracks her lines almost word for word: the Marmorbank, the Flügelpaar, the poppy field running over from p. 164, and the one eye that is phosphorleuchtend — a word he puts in quotation marks because he is quoting her. Asrael is not a poem title and is not in the index, which is why the reference falls inside a poem named for something else.
- ↑lets his one eye rest — Rilke's figure is male, and so was the painted one. Her poem makes it a woman. Her lines say ein Weib rests on the marble bench, and name her die Parze selbst — the Fate herself, who cuts each life's thread — with a death's-head moth, Sphinx Atropos, on her brow. The painting does not follow the poem. When she first showed it, in her studio in Rome in February 1896, it was already titled Asrael, the angel of death; the reviewer saw a male figure with a naked, sinewy body, and the lines she set beside it read "Und so ruht er" ("And so he rests"), where the book has sie ("she") (Allgemeine Zeitung, 4 February 1896). In Leipzig that June the same lines stood in the frame (Leipziger Tageblatt, 21 June 1896). So the masculine der that runs through Rilke's sentence follows her picture and her title: it was she who made the female Fate a male angel.
- ↑Decoratively significant is Evoë Bacche. — The same painting an Italian dictionary of artists remembered in 1889. One of her best-travelled pictures: in Berlin by January 1881 and in Düsseldorf that February (Berliner Börsen-Zeitung, 6 January 1881; Rhein- und Ruhrzeitung, 16 February 1881), at the Rome exhibition of 1883 (catalogue no. 21), and still being shown when Rilke saw it fifteen years later. De Gubernatis's dictionary of 1889 remembers it too. Its sentence is easily read as putting the picture at Turin in 1884, but the Turin catalogue of that year does not list it. No record we hold shows where the canvas is now. (de Gubernatis, 1889)
- ↑must guard against the genre-like — for that she is too — great — The one criticism in the review, and Rilke breaks his own sentence to make it. Genrehaft means the anecdotal, small-scale picture of daily life — the safe, saleable mode. The dash before "great" is his, and it turns a warning into a compliment mid-clause.
- ↑in the wife of the famous Konrad Telmann — In 1896 he was the famous one, and she was introduced as his wife. Konrad Telmann, novelist, died in January 1897 — four months after this review. The relative standing of the two names has since reversed completely, which is part of what this site is about.
- ↑such is the thing she stands apart from — Rilke's sentence runs on past the quotation, and the German verb is left stranded after it. He writes weil sie ferne steht — "because she stands far from" — then quotes three lines of her verse, and only afterwards supplies the ist that closes the clause. English cannot strand a verb that way, so the sense is completed here instead.