The Image of the Hand in Rilke's Poetry

Author(s): Frederic C. Tubach

Source: PMLA, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Jun., 1961), pp. 240-246
Published by: Modern Language Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/460355
Accessed: 16-01-2016 18:49 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PMLA.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sat, 16 Jan 2016 18:49:02 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 THE IMAGE OF THE
By Frederic
ihr benihrt euch so selig, weil die Liebkosung verhalt,
weil die Stelle nicht schwindet, die ihr, Zartliche,
zudeckt; weil ihr darunter das reine
Dauern verspiirt.
increasing importance of the hand-
THE image for Rilke is an indication of his
steadily growing conviction that the plastic arts
should become the guide for poetry. Conse-
quently, the image of the hand occurs frequently
in the early collections entitled Das Buch der
Bilder (1902) and Das Stundenbuch (1906).1 Even
in the first poem of Das Stundenbuch, written as
early as 1899, Rilke shows a marked interest in
plastic representation, which was to become the
dominant influence upon his poetry during the
period of his close acquaintance with the French
sculptor Rodin a few years later:
Da neigt sich die Stunde und riihrt mich an
mit klarem, metallenem Schlag:
mir zittern die Sinne. Ich fiihle: ich kann?
und ich fasse den plastischen Tag.2
The juxtaposition of Tag, a unit of time, with
plastisch, a quality realized in space, is of impor?
tance. The poet is creative?this is the meaning
we can give in our context to fassen?as soon as
he is able to transform everchanging phenomena
as seen in time into things in space. "Ich fiihle:
ich kann? / und ich fasse den plastischen Tag"
shows the poet's joy in creating against time, and
in this instance the hands succeed in finding the
essence of a unit of time itself, namely Tag, by
expressing it plastisch. His subsequent acquaint?
ance with Rodin brought Rilke a thorough under-
standing of the plastic arts, and he found a way of
writing plastic poetry in his Dinggedichte. Rilke
came to see in sculpture the embodiment of
spiritual values in sensuous surfaces. He said in
his book on Rodin: "Sie [sculpture] mufite einer
Zeit helfen konnen, deren Qual es war, dafi alle
ihre Konflikte im Unsichtbaren lagen."3 For
Rilke, sculpture expressed the spiritual con-
cretely through human bodies and things, that is
to say, it embodied the invisible in the visible.
Thus, Rilke found a guiding principle for poetry
in an age which saw the poet literally at a loss for
words. Words no longer were able to express
feelings. They had lost their power to embody, so
that the poet was compelled to turn to a different
language, to the language of the hands, die
This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sat, 16 Jan 2016 18:49:02 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
HAND IN RILKE'S POETRY
C. Tubach
Ich weu3,
(Second Elegy)
Sprache der Hande {Rodin, p. 42), as Rilke called
Rodin's work. He had to turn to sculpture, for in
sculpture artistic expression centers solely within
the search for neue Oberflachen and neue Gebarden.
Thus, Rilke came more and more to consider
lines, movements, plastic surfaces more immedi?
ately expressive than words.
In Rilke's early poetry4 the hand appears first
of all as the creative tool of both the sculptor and
the poet, or it may in itself contain a creative
force. This aspect may be termed the image of
the hand and the problem of artistic creativity.
Rilke employs the hand also as an expressive
part of the human body in order to represent
pure movement, nonfunctional motion, that is to
say Gebarde.
The isolation of a part of the body as an in-
tegral aspect of a poetic concept had a respectable
history before its use found renewal in modern
poetry, and particularly in Rilke's work.5 For
11 owe a special debt of gratitude to my friendand
teacher,Andrew0. Jaszi, Universityof California,forsug-
gestingthis topic and for giving me an understandingof
modernpoetry.I would also like to thankBernhardBlume,
Harvard University,withoutwhose suggestionsand com-
ments this paper would have remained decidedlyincom-
plete. I gratefullyacknowledgethe help of Walter Silz,
Columbia University,forhis suggestionsconcerningstyle.
2 Rainer Maria Rilke, SamtlicheWerke (Leipzig, 1955),
I, 253. All subsequentreferencesare to Vol. i.
3 R. M. Rilke, Rodin,ed. R. Muther (Berlin,1907), p. 7.
4 It should be noted that throughoutthis paper no stress
whatever is laid upon psychologicalinterpretations.For
these,thereadermayreferto ErichSimenauer,RainerMaria
Rilke (Bern, 1953). Althoughdifferent approaches to the
worksof the poet do not have to be mutuallyexclusive,as is
assumed so frequentlyin scholarship(cf. the bewildering
and oftenbemusingtangle of Kafka-research),I feel that
the uniqueness,individualityand, therefore, significanceof
a poet can be appreciatedto a much greaterextentif he is
not principallyconsideredas an expressionof generalpsy?
chologicallaws. For an informativetreatmentof the hand-
images in Malte, cf. Idris Parry, "Malte's Hand," GLL
(October 1957).
5 ProfessorSilz drew to my attentionthe fact that Theo-
dor Stormmay be consideredthe originatorof the modern
"cult of the hand" in German literature.Descriptionsof
autonomous parts of the human body may be found in
Baroque poetry,especiallyin the worksof G6ngoraand Hof-
mannswaldau.
240
 Frederic C. Tubach
Rilke, the hand acquires feelings, aspirations, a
personality, just like the whole human being. In
his book on Rodin, Rilke speaks of hands as of
independent entities, and beyond that, he credits
them with possessing a culture of their own:
"Aber Hande sind schon ein komplizierter
Organismus, ein Delta, in dem viel fernherkom-
mendes Leben zusammenflieCt, um sich in den
groften Strom der That zu ergiefien. Es giebt
eine Geschichte der Hande, sie haben thatsach-
lich ihre eigene Kultur, ihre besondere Schon-
heit, man gesteht ihnen das Recht zu, eine eigene
Entwickelung zu haben, eigene Wiinsche, Ge-
fuhle, Launen und Liebhabereien" (Rodin, p.
28f.). Why are the hands given the privilege of
having their own wishes, feelings, and their own
development? It is because of their culture and
beauty. This beauty lies in their artistic expres-
siveness, which can be heightened by an isolation
and separation from everything else, that is to
say, from accidental environment; the hands are
allowed to emerge as an entity in themselves.
Nietzsche's statement, "Das Ganze ist kein
Ganzes mehr," speaks for particular traits which
find illustration in the poetry of Rilke. Christian
Morgenstern, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and
Stefan George follow the same pattern of isolat-
ing parts of the human body to give them an
autonomous self-sufhcient existence. The isola?
tion of an act or of a part of the human body
keeps its positive value only so long as it serves
artistic ends. If, however, this purpose is not visi-
ble, then artistic isolation becomes disintegra-
tion. Rilke exclaims, "O was ist das fiir eine
Welt! Stticke, Stucke von Menschen, Teile von
Tieren, Uberreste von gewesenen Dingen, und
alles noch bewegt, wie in einem unheimlichen
Winde durcheinandertreibend, getragen und
tragend, fallend und sich uberholend im Fall."6
Rilke speaks in this instance of isolation as disin-
tegration outside the realm of art. The human
sphere is experienced as having lost a moral,
unifying principle, and man emerges in a state of
disintegration, mercilessly abandoned to strong
forces which he cannot control. Many examples
throughout the poems of the early Rilke show the
separation of the hand from the rest of the body
as disintegration. Such loss of identity with
empirical reality is, psychologically speaking,
dangerous:
Denn seine Rechte will schon von der Linken,
um sich zu wehren oder um zu winken
und um am Arm allein zu sein.
(Werke, p. 267)
Such a separation of the hand leads man to con-
This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sat, 16 Jan 2016 18:49:02 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
241
sider his own hands as strangers, even as enemies:
"Und plotzlich bist du ganz allein gelassen / mit
deinen Handen, die dich hassen?" {Werke, p.
277). The most apprehensive formulation of the
psychological dangers inherent in the loss of
entirety occurs in the passage:
Man kennt nur diese fremde gelbe Hand,
die sich ausstreckt so nackt und nah?
da da:
als kam sie aus dem eigenen Gewand.
(Werke, p. 275)
Estrangement from oneself and consequently
from empirical reality are intricately linked with
this loss of entirety. Thus, Rilke employs the
hand-image to give expression to feelings of
personal isolation and loneliness. No solution can
be found by Rilke in the human sphere. Art, how?
ever, offers a solution to the human dilemma.
Hence, artistic purposes give a positive value to
the perception of the hand as an isolated part. It
is a matter of utmost urgency for Rilke to trans-
form the isolated hand into a higher form of
artistic entity: "Dem Kunstler steht es zu,
aus vielen Dingen eines zu machen und aus dem
kleinsten eines Dinges eine Welt" (Rodin, p. 28).
The description of Rodin's studio, in a letter
to his wife dated September 1902, contains
clearly Rilke's idea of the artist's mission to
transform that which seems to be disintegrating
empirically into a higher form of artistic unity:
Akte in der Groftemeiner Hand und grofier.. . . aber
nur Stiicke, kaum eines ganz: oft nur ein Stiick Arm,
ein Stiick Bein, wie sie so nebeneinander hergehen,und
das Stiick Leib, das ganz nahe dazu gehort. Einmal
der Torso einer Figur mit dem Kopf einer anderen an
sich angeprefit, mit dem Arm einer dritten. ... als
ware ein unsaglicher Sturm, eine Zerstorung ohne-
gleichen iiber dieses Werk gegangen. Und doch [italics
added] je naher man zusieht, desto tiefer fiihlt man,
dafi alles das weniger ganz ware, wenn die einzelnen
Korper ganz waren. Jeder dieser Brocken ist von einer
bestimmten, ergreifenden Einheit, so allein moglich,
so gar nicht der Erganzung bediirftig, daft man ver-
giftt,daB es nur Teile und oft Teile von verschiedenen
Korpern sind, die da so leidenschaftlich aneinander-
hangen: man fuhlt plotzlich, daft es mehr Sache des
Gelehrten ist, den Korper als Ganzes zu fassen?und
vielmehr des Kunstlers, aus den Teilen neue Ver-
bindungen zu schaffen?neue, grofiere,gesetzmaftigere
Einheiten . . . ewigere . . .
(Briefe, p. 252f.)
Art presupposes separation and isolation for the
sake of concentrated expression. The isolated
part, artistically transformed, embodies not only
the essence of the whole, but something more.
6 R. M. Rilke, GesammelteBriefe (Leipzig, 1939), i, 363.
All subsequentreferences
to the Briefeare fromVol. i.
242 The Image of the Hand
Rilke's fearful apprehensions of a process of
disintegration manifest in reality ("Uberreste
von gewesenen Dingen, und alles noch bewegt,
wie in einem unheimlichen Winde durcheinander-
treibend") are no longer apparent in the descrip?
tion of Rodin's studio. The belief in the power of
artistic creativity to transform reality has freed
Rilke from such apprehensions. Although initi-
ally he describes Rodin's studio in a negative
manner ("als ware ein unsaglicher Sturm, eine
Zerstorung ohnegleichen iiber dieses Werk
gegangen"), it is ultimately through artistic
transformation that disintegration is replaced by
poetic expressiveness ("aus den Teilen neue
Verbindungen zu schaffen?neue, grofiere, ge-
setzmafiigere Einheiten . . . ewigere . . . ").
It is evident, then, how Rilke came to the
realization that the act of separating and isolat-
ing a part becomes positive, if such an act is
motivated by artistic creativity.
As early as 1900, Rilke likened the hands to
creators, not only of plastic works of art, but also
of poetry. The greatest praise he can bestow upon
one of Baudelaire's poems is to say that it was
created by hands: "Ein Gebet Baudelaires, ein
wirkliches, schlichtes Gebet, mit den Handen
gemacht" (Briefe, p. 361). Here, the hands them?
selves are given the power to create a poem.
Likewise, in his description of the sculptor Rodin
at work, Rilke finds the creative force within the
hands themselves. The movements of the sculp-
tor's hands are made synonymous with the act of
creating artistically: "Es liegt eine Art Reinheit
und Jungfraulichkeit darin, in diesem von sich
selbst Fortschauen; es ist, wie wenn man zeich-
net, den Blick an das Ding gebunden, verwoben
mit der Natur, und die Hand geht allein [italics
added] irgendwo unten ihren Weg, geht und
geht, wird angstlich, schwankt, wird wieder froh,
geht und geht tief unter dem Gesicht, das wie ein
Stern uber ihr steht" (Briefe, p. 343). It must be
emphasized again that the hands function as
autonomous entities. They are not merely tools
employed by the sculptor to give expression to an
artistic concept. The hands themselves are the
embodiment of the creative power made manifest
in their movements. In his own poetry, Rilke
makes frequent use of the hand-image as an
embodiment of the creative principle:
Ich lese es heraus aus deinem Wort,
aus der Geschichte der Gebarden,
mit welchen deine Hande um das Werden
sich riindeten, begrenzend, warm und weise.
(Werke, p. 257)
The verb sich riindeten is especially interesting in
This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sat, 16 Jan 2016 18:49:02 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in Rilke''s Poetry
our context, because it shows that Rilke consid?
ered artistic creation as delimitation, Abgrenzung
or Geschlossenheit. Only what the hands are able
to grasp within themselves can be formed and
given expression. Thus, Werden is transmuted
through art into Sein, that is to say, perpetual
change is overcome through artistic transforma-
tion, and it is the task of the hands to defeat time
through the creative act.
Rilke employed the hand-image not only to
embody artistic creativity, but also to give
expression to the opposite, namely to his own
poetically unproductive periods. Utter concen-
tration is for Rilke a prerequisite for the poet at
work. Rilke felt frequently that he failed to
satisfy the demands which the writing of poetry
made on him. He often felt that he lacked the
ability, which he admired so much in Rodin, to
mold a work of art, a poem. Happy afhrmations
are indeed very rare, and complete despair at
having failed to achieve the concentration neces?
sary for the creative process is not uncommon in
Rilke:
ich verrinne, ich verrinne
wie Sand, der durch Finger rinnt.
(Werke, p. 266)
This image of the hand expresses the poet's ina-
bility to concentrate: his power of concentration
is dispersed like sand which runs through the
fingers of an open hand. In such a discouraged
mood, Rilke may have come to admire Michel?
" . . . und dafi
angelo, about whom he says: er
Alles wie ein Ding umfasse ..." {Werke, p. 271).
As soon as Rilke considers himself productive
again, he uses the hand-image to express his joy:
Ich weifi: Du bist der Ratselhafte,
um den die Zeit in Zogern stand.
0 wie so schon ich dich erschaffte
in einer Stunde, die mich straffte,
in einer Hoffahrt meiner Hand.
(Werke, p. 284)
Positive assertions of his belief in himself as an
artist alternate with passages revealing his
struggle to identify himself with his own poetic
genius:
Und meine Hande, welche blutig sind
vom Graben, heb ich offenin den Wind,
so daB sie sich verzweigen wie ein Baum.
Ich sauge dich mit ihnen aus dem Raum
als hattest du dich einmal dort zerschellt . . .
(Werke, p. 339 f.)
In his early poetry, Rilke perceived the artistic
process as something concrete. The sculptor at
work mirrors this process at its best. Rilke ob-
 Frederic C. Tubach
serves him expressing essential qualities in
surface, bending the invisible to realization in
the visible and in the concrete.
The hand-image appears in Rilke's poetry not
only as the embodiment of the sculptor's and the
poet's creative genius, but also as a vehicle of
pure and self-contained motion, Gebarde. Again,
Rilke found in Rodin his master. For Rilke,
Rodin's sculpture of the hand represents a
perfect entity. It is a beginning and an end in
itself, and it is truly expressive because of its self-
sufiiciency and Bezugslosigkeit nach auBen:
Wenn er [Rodin] eine Hand bildet, so ist sie im Raum
allein, und es ist nichts auBer Hand, und Gott hat in
sechs Tagen nur eine Hand gemacht und hat die
Wasser um sie ausgegossen und die Himmel gebogen
iiber sie, und hat geruht iiber ihr, als alles vollendet
war, und es war eine Herrlichkeit und eine Hand.
(Briefe, p. 376)
Here, the hand unites within itself all possible
relationships extant in the world. The sculptor
succeeds in this instance in making "aus dem
kleinsten Teil eine Welt." The waters enclose the
hand, the heavens are arched over it and God is
all about it. The hand realizes within itself what
creation, the world in its totality, already reveals
to man, namely an all-embracing, independent
whole, without purpose or goal, something which
simply is. In this image, the hand no longer is a
part of the body, it is no longer used as a tool by
its owner for some purpose. As a matter of fact, it
has no owner, and does not need one. Now that
the hand no longer is useful and employed for
some end, concentration upon the hand as an
artistic thing in itself is possible.
Many hand-images of a similar nature can be
found throughout the early poetry of Rilke. One
of the most successful formulations of the hand-
image as an embodiment of pure motion appears
in a passage reminiscent of George:
Die beiden Hande, seltsam still und braun,
verkiinden, daB im kostlichen Ikone
die Konigliche wie im Kloster wohne . . .
(Werke, p. 435)
The contrast established between seltsam still and
verkiinden is important, for this contrast contains
the key to the Gebarde: since there is nothing
said, something has to be expressed for the
Verkundigung to be made. It is not the ear which
receives the message, but the eye looking upon
hands. The message is not transmitted through
the use of conventional, communicative lan?
guage, but through the Gebarde itself. Thus, the
hand verkilndet without language. Similarly, in
the poem entitled Mittwoch and dedicated to
This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sat, 16 Jan 2016 18:49:02 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
243
Paula Becker, the expressiveness of hands is
considered more effective than communicative
language as a means of transmitting thoughts:
Das ist die Stunde, da die Hande reden:
des Tages Arbeit klingt in ihnen nach,
sie beben leise und erleben jeden
Gedanken wirklich, den der Mund nur sprach.
(Briefe, p. 130)
Words are only refractions, or at best, reflections
of thoughts; the concrete hands, however, are for
Rilke an embodiment of the thoughts themselves.
With Rilke, the idea of pure motion in poetry, the
concept of Gebarde, is a direct result of a deeply
rooted distrust of communicative language as
such. (It is impossible to pursue even the major
implications of the problem of Gebarde in this
brief analysis.)
Probably the most striking and subtle example
of the hand as pure expression occurs in the poem
"Die Blinde" from Das Buch der Bilder:
Und fiihlte: nah bei meinen Handen ging
der Atem einer grofienweifien Rose.
(Werke, p. 466)
The hands of the blind person are more sensitive
to touch than the hands of people who are able to
see. If we watch a blind man as he touches an
object, we become aware of the sensitivity of his
fingertips, for unlike a seeing person, who takes
hold of a thing after having seen it, he must first
use his hands to feel the position of the object.
This sensitivity so eloquently expressed in the
hand of a blind man is heightened in Rilke's
image of the blind woman's hands. Her hands are
made to feel the breath of a large, white rose. The
extended hands of this blind woman are more
than a substitute for the eye; they are a symbol
of the whole person. Her hands await in utter
concentration and passive receptiveness the
message from the outside. The essential quality
of this blind woman lies in her hands, which show
an apprehensive awareness in a dark world of
things. The breath of the large white rose meets
almost in a mystical union with the gesture of
receptive and sensitive hands to form a new
artistic entity, which contains and fuses fra-
grance, a flower, color, a breath, and two ex?
tended hands. This Rilkean image has its
ancestor in Baudelaire's sonnet Les Correspon-
dances:
Comme de longs echos qui de loin se confondent
dans une tenebreuse et profonde unite
vaste comme la nuit et comme la clarte
les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se repondent.7
7 CharlesBaudelaire,(EvresCompUtes
(Paris, 1918), i, 29.
244 The Image of the Hand
The phase in Rilke's development which led
him to apply the principles of the plastic arts to
poetry comes to an end with the Neue Gedichte,
and a new poetic phase begins, culminating in the
Duineser Elegien and the Sonette an Orpheus. In
this new phase, he shifts the emphasis to the
invisible, using the poet's innermost faculty in
order to translate reality into a more intense
inner poetic world, as described by him towards
the end of his life in a letter to Hulewicz: "Wir
sind die Bienen des Unsichtbaren. Nous butinons
eperdument le miel du visible pour Paccumuler
dans la grande ruche d'or de L'Invisible" {Werke,
v, 374).
Some hand-images subsequent to his early
poetry reflect a change in the poetic orientation
which Rilke has undergone. Although his Buch
der Bilder and Neue Gedichte climax his plastic
poetry, there is evidence in some of the hand-
images of a growing unrest. Rilke becomes pro-
gressively more dissatisfied with the concrete,
delineated, and plastic work of art. He finds him?
self more and more estranged from the things
which he attempted to capture in concrete and
visible surface:
und heimlich, gleichsam in der hohlen Hand,
ihm Himmel hinter Grun und Dunkel zeigend
wie einen unbekannten Gegenstand.
(Werke, p. 529)
An estrangement between creative hands on the
one side and a world of things to be artistically
transformed on the other threatens the precari-
ous relationship between the poet and the sculp?
tor, and thus this new world still eludes the poet's
grasp.
Although, at this time, Rilke came close to
formulating the poetic mission which was to
occupy him to the end of his life ("die Welt . . .
in eine Hand voll Innres zu verwandeln," Werke,
p. 554), the Neue Gedichte do not give much more
than occasional intimations of Rilke's new in?
sights.
The significant hand-images of the later period
reflect three main themes essential in Rilke's
poetry after 1908: the rejection of the subjective
in art, the striving for an absolute and objective
reality within the poet himself, and ultimately,
the reintegration of the artist into a transformed
reality and an identification with human relation?
ships. The hand-images in Das Roseninnere, Hand-
inneres, "Solang du Selbstgeworfnes fangst," and
in the Second Elegy are the most eloquent expres?
sion of these three themes. Rilke finds in his later
period a realm for the artist which is no longer a
mere reflection of his own poetic genius, or the
This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sat, 16 Jan 2016 18:49:02 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in RUke's Poetry
result of his own artistic creativity. The work of
art is no longer directly subject to the poet's
creative forces, as embodied by hands, for ex?
ample, but possesses an objective and absolute
existence beyond and above the poet. The hands,
once an artistic tool, an expression of subjective
feelings, or an embodiment of pure and self-
contained motion, will be removed from the
world of illusory distinctions to become part of an
absolute cosmic realm.
The poem Das Roseninnere suggests what was
later to be realized:
Welche Himmel spiegeln sich drinnen
in dem Binnensee
dieser offenenRosen,
dieser sorglosen, sieh:
wie sie lose im Losen
liegen, als konnte nie
eine zitternde Hand sie verschutten.
(Werke, p. 622 f.)
"Offen" and "lose," essential attributes of the
"rose" in this poem, could not possibly have been
used to characterize the artistic entity in his early
period. What gives these attributes their funda-
mental importance within the framework of
Rilke's later development is the fact that, once
having discarded delineation as a basic principle
in his art, Rilke had to reject the spatial distinc?
tion between inner and outer dimensions; for
such a distinction would not apply to a realm
which, absolute and cosmic,8 lies outside the
reach of ordinary time and space.9 The resulting
form of absolute poetry can no longer be consid?
ered principally an emanation of the poet's own
creative faculty. This absolute poetry is a reflec?
tion of the poet's inner awareness of a cosmic
realm. Consequently, it becomes the poet's
urgent need to find identification with this cos?
mic realm. If he should fail in this effort, his
existence would be deprived of a foundation. In
this poem, the threat to the existence of the
"rose" and the poet's fear for his own existence
can no longer be separated ("zitternde Hand"
may be taken as referring to both). Thus the
basic problem now is no longer one of creativity,
but one of the poet's existence and his ability to
relate himself to the absolute existence within the
"rose." This problem is solved by Rilke in the
poem Handinneres in the Spate Gedichte (1913?)
8 The "oflenenRosen" are an allusionto thiscosmicrealm.
9 Cf., for instance, "O wie mag sie sich schliefienbei
Nacht, diese immeroffeneHand" {Sonette,Werke,p. 764),
wherethe "closingof the open hand" has nothingwhatever
to do witha changeofpositionin timeand space, likefassen
in his earlierperiod,but ratherwith the realizationof the
hand in a cosmicand absoluterealm.
 Frederic C. Tubach
which contains the essence of his mature creed:
Inneres der Hand. Sohle, die nicht mehr geht
als auf Gefiihl. Die sich nach oben halt
und im Spiegel
himmlische StraBen empfangt, die selber
Wandelnden.
Die gelernt hat, auf Wasser zu gehn,
wenn sie schopft,
die auf Brunnen geht,
aller Wege Verwandlerin.
Die auftritt in anderen Handen,
die ihresgleichen
zur Landschaft macht:
wandert und ankommt in ihnen,
sie anfiillt mit Ankunft.10
The hand is revealed within the framework of a
process of transformation. Therefore, we may
approach it from the standpoint of its origin
(Herkunft) or its advent {Ankunft). It is its ori?
gin, expressed by "Sohle," which gives substance
to the entire poem: the "Handinneres" is like a
sole which has acquired the skill of walking and of
making its appearance in other hands. If we con?
sider the sole of a foot, we know that it is heavy
and walks on earth. Similarly, the "Handin?
neres" in our poem walks on feeling ("Gefiihl"),
as it were, but in walking on it, it separates itself
from feeling to rise above it. The hand as self-
contained motion, as a creative tool of the
sculptor-poet, as an expressive artistic entity, was
conceived of as a concrete and tangible embodi?
ment of feelings in the sphere of art, but in the
present poem, the hand, rising above feeling,
transcends the subjective. This leads us to the
second aspect of the poem, namely to the result of
transformation which has taken place (the ad?
vent), and we may ask what has become of the
sole in this transformation. First of all, we may
now describe it as being elevated and exalted:
"Die sich nach oben halt / und im Spiegel / himm?
lische StraBen empfangt ..." Rilke intends
to set into motion cosmic and objective forces:
the hand, having been like a sole, and thus con?
nected with earth, weight, and subjectivity,
joins a cosmic order to become part of it.
Few important poems in Rilke's later works
have been more neglected than "Solang du
Selbstgeworfnes fangst" from his Spdte Gedichte.11
Yet this poem is essential for an understanding of
the late Rilke, since it contains his Weltanschau-
ung in a manner so explicit as to be unique among
his poetic utterances:
Solang du Selbstgeworfnes fangst, ist alles
Geschicklichkeit und laBlicher Gewinn?;
erst wenn du plotzlich Fanger wirst des Balles,
den eine ewige Mit-Spielerin
This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sat, 16 Jan 2016 18:49:02 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
245
dir zuwarf, deiner Mitte, in genau
gekonntem Schwung, in einem jener Bogen
aus Gottes groftemBriicken-Bau:
erst dann ist Fangen-Konnen ein Vermogen,?
nicht deines, einer Welt. Und wenn du gar
zuruckzuwerfen Kraft und Mut besaftest,
nein, wunderbarer: Mut und Kraft vergafiest
und schon geworfen hdttest,. . . wie das Jahr
die Vogel wirft,die Wandervogelschwarme,
die eine altre einer jungen Warme
hinuberschleudert iiber Meere?, erst
in diesem Wagnis spielst du giiltig mit.
Erleichterst dir den Wurf nicht mehr; erschwerst
dir ihn nicht mehr. Aus deinen Handen tritt
das Meteor und rast in seine Raume . . .12
The poem is sustained by two main themes: the
poet's complete and profound break with sub?
jectivism, and his identification with an absolute
Reality. The rejection of the subjective element
is considered prerequisite for such an absolute
identification to come about. "Solang du Selbst-
geworfnes fangst ..." formulates this rejec?
tion explicitly. Thus, Rilke sets the stage for the
identification to be realized, not all at once, but
gradually, searchingly, and with an unerring
intuitive sense: the thrower of the ball (an image
expressive of the artist whose work represents an
emanation of the poet's own subjective creativ?
ity) changes into a recipient in this supreme play:
"erst wenn du plotzlich Fanger wirst des Balles."
In this sudden change, it is the recipient's essen?
tial being alone which can enter into a relation?
ship with an absolute Reality, for the descriptive
"dir" is deliberately given the significant specifi-
cation "deiner Mitte" to show that the essential
being has to be divested of all subjective, acci?
dental, and peripheral qualities. Although the
manifestation of this absolute Reality in its
relationship to the poet's essential being is basi-
cally one which could be described as "free play,"
a law is evident?unalterable, absolute and
certain:
in genau gekonntem Schwung, in einem jener Bogen
aus Gottes grofiemBriicken-Bau:
erst dann ist Fangen-Konnen ein Vermogen,?
nicht deines, einer Welt.
10R. M. Rilke, Spate Gedichte(Leipzig, 1935), p. 149.
11Some enlightening commentson thispoemare contained
in O. F. Bollnow,Rilke (Stuttgart,1951),p. 261 fl.My inter?
pretationof this poem does not contradictBollnow's. Al?
thoughhis contentionmaybe valid thatthepoemdeals,from
one pointof view at least, withthe problemof man and his
fate {Mensch-Schicksal), his subsequentapplication of this
concept "man-fate"does not seem to reveal fullythe basic
meaningofthispoem.
12Rilke,Spate Gedichte, 86,
p.
246 The Image of the Hand
On the level of the objective existence for which
Rilke strives, the contradiction which seems to
exist between "free play" and unalterable and
certain law is only apparent, and cannot be con?
sidered real. The two concepts are not necessarily
mutually exclusive, but rather eminently in
harmony with one another. As long as the rela?
tionship is one of a "recipient" to a "giver," the
supreme play is still incomplete. It is now the
task of the "recipient" to become an active part-
ner in this relationship:
Und wenn du gar
zuriickzuwerfen Kraft und Mut besaBest,
nein, wunderbarer: Mut und Kraft vergaBest
und schon geworfen hattest,. . .
Rilke's realization of the absolute Reality within
him has progressed to a point where he must, of
necessity, interrupt his thought process, for
"Kraft" and "Mut" as prerequisites for this
relationship of the poet to an absolute Reality are
in no wise applicable, since they are personal and
subjective in character, and therefore completely
irrelevant to an absolute Reality within the poet.
The nature of this realization is such that Rilke
can, on a conscious level, only allude to some?
thing which has already taken place, beyond the
reach of conscious observation and awareness:
nein, wunderbarer: Mut und Kraft vergaBest
und schon geworfen hattest,. . .
Rilke then proceeds to describe this whole proc?
ess as a daring one ("erst in diesem Wagnis") in
order to point out that a complete rejection of
any subjective identification with what is com-
monly considered our individuality is not without
danger. Once it is achieved, however, the poet is
saved from his subjective involvement, because
he has experienced an objective Reality within
himself:
This content downloaded from 194.177.218.24 on Sat, 16 Jan 2016 18:49:02 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in Rilke's Poetry
Aus deinen Handen tritt
das Meteor und rast in seine Raume . . .
Thus, at the end of a tortuous and often ob?
scure path, Rilke abandoned the human dilemma
in search of a solution in art. Painfully aware of
the disintegration of the traditional world and its
values, he ultimately strove for a reintegration of
the artist and, in a larger sense, of the human
being, by relating him to a cosmic realm of abso?
lute Reality and consequently of absolute
values.13
On this level, Rilke found, at least in the
form of a hypothesis, "ein reines, verhaltenes,
schmales Menschliches, einen unseren Streifen
Fruchtlands zwischen Strom und Gestein"
(Second Elegy).
University of California
Berkeley 4
13The
scope and approach of this paper necessitatedthe
selectionof hand-imagesaccordingto theirsignificancefor
some essentialaspects of Rilke's poetryand philosophyof
art. However, the hand-imagesemployedby Rilke are so
abundantthata briefnumericalsurveyseemsjustifiedin ad-
ditionto what has been discussed.Hand-imagesin thenomi-
nal formappear 276 times,in theverbalform181times.Their
distributionaccordingto the threemain periodsof Rilke's
literaryproductivity is as follows:
Number of occurrencesin the nominalform:1895-1902:
120; 1902-1908: 109; 1908-: 47.
Numberof occurrencesin the verbalform:1895-1902: 73;
1902-1908: 77; 1908-: 31.
Of the verbal forms,the followingare preferred:halten
(47 times),heben (30), greifen(21), fassen(19), werfen(13),
winken(10), reichen(7), loslassen (6), reiCen(6), zeigen(5),
beriihren(5). All the othersoccur less frequently,such as
stellen, zerren,zerbrechen,fuhlen,anruhren,fangen,um-
fassen, losen, binden, hinhalten,graben, hauen, schlagen,
abtasten,befuhlen,abgreifen,abfiihlen,nachfuhlen,hinein-
legen, abschieben,zerschlagen,winden,schlingen,wringen,
biegen, streuen, machen, glattstreichen,krallen, geben.
Halten, greifenand fassenare relatedin meaningand com-
prise87 ofthe 181 verbalforms.Of these87, only11 are used
after 1908.