GR translation: her marginally human touch

[Mike Jing]

Thanks, János.  That makes everything perfectly clear to me.


> Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:54:54 +0200
> Subject: Re: GR translation: her marginally human touch
> From: miksaapja at gmail.com
> To: mikezjing at hotmail.com
> CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
> 
> Well, the whole sentence is the fiollowing: "Of all Rilke's poetry
> it's this Tenth Elegy he most loves, can feel the bitter lager of
> Yearning begin to prickle behind eyes and sinuses at remembering any
> passage of . . . the newly-dead youth, embracing his Lament, his last
> link, leaving now even her marginally human touch forever, climbing
> all alone, terminally alone, up and up into the mountains of primal
> Pain, with the wildly alien constellations overhead."
> 
> The subject of Mike's excerpt is not Blicero directly but the "youth"
> of the poem, and this is an enlarged quotation of the original:
> 
> "They stand at the mountain's foot.
> Weeping, she embraces him.
> Alone, he starts his climb
> up the peak of Primal Pain."
> ( http://www.hunterarchive.com/files/Poetry/Elegies/elegy10.html  )
> 
> "She" is definitely the Lament (more precisely, the Elder Lament)
> here, while Blicero has identified himself with the youth "since the
> Südwest".
> 
> Yes, the figure of this elder Lament might be fused with the
> ambisexual Witch aspect Blicero's character, while he may perceive
> Katje as an avatar of the "young Lament", who occurs earlier in the
> poem.
> 
> János
> 
> 2011/7/15 Mike Jing <mikezjing at hotmail.com>:
> > P99.40-41  ... the newly-dead youth, embracing his Lament, his last link,
> > leaving now even her marginally human touch forever, ...
> >
> > Who is "she"?  Why is her touch "marginally human"?
> >
> > Does "she" refer to "his Lament"?  If so, is it an actual person, or, most
> > likely, something else?
> >
> > Not sure if the answer is in the Tenth Elegy.  Haven't had time to study it.
> >
 		 	   		  
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