Friday 28th May: Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke

Here is a haunting poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, sent to me by my friend Jane:

And it was almost a girl who, stepping from
this single harmony of song and lyre,
appeared to me through her diaphanous form
and made herself a bed inside her ear.

And slept in me. Her sleep was everything:
the awesome trees, the distances I had felt
so deeply that I could touch them, meadows in spring;
all wonders that had ever seized my heart.

She slept the world. Singing god, how was the first
sleep so perfect that she had no desire
ever to wake? See: she arose and slept.

Where is her death now? Ah, will you discover
this theme before your song consumes itself?-
Where is she vanishing?.... A girl, almost...

I wonder what this poem is about. Is it about Rilke's bigger sister who died at only 1 week's age? Wikipedia tells me Rilke's Mum dressed him in girl's clothes for a while because of her grief for her baby daughter who had died before Rilke's birth. Wikipedia also tells me that Rilke's main partner was a woman called Lou Andreas-Salome (great name!), and the description of her life reads like a parody of bohemia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Andreas-Salom%C3%A9 . I hope they had fun! Sounds exhausting to me.