Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

Rilke's Literary Remains

Author(s): Herman Salinger
Source: Books Abroad, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Autumn, 1953), pp. 375-376
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40092331 .
Accessed: 21/06/2014 09:17
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.

Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma and University of Oklahoma are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to Books Abroad.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.41 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 09:17:33 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

NOT IN THE REVIEWS

celebrated; that the castle was still nearly
empty did not matter very much. The second
"target" was a collection, one of the many
which are usual in the Communist countries.
This time the money - voluntarily given, of
course- was to be collected to finance a new
"popular" edition of Jirasek's novels and other
works. They have always been best sellers and
nobody could understand why a collection to
finance their republication should be necessary.
The result of the collection, it was said afterwards, was to enable the State Publishing
House to sell the books very cheap and at a
loss. Dozens and dozens of other books are
published by Czechoslovakia's rulers at a low
price and at a loss; why, then, should a collection be necessary in the case of Jirasek?
Most probably it was nothing but a new attempt of the regime to "fight inflation" by
confiscating considerable savings. It was stated
in 1949 that this collection brought in 22 million crowns (50 crowns = 1 dollar). Those
eager to acquire the new popular edition- 32
volumes were to come out by the end of 1951
- had to pay 1,500 crowns even in 1949.
According to the Czech papers, there were
about 50,000 subscribers, a figure which only
underlines the compulsory character of the
whole undertaking. All in all the government
succeeded in tricking out of the people 75
millions in subscription money, besides the
original 22 millions - quite an amount.
It seems that only 26 of the 32 promised
volumes have been published so far. The
whole comedy reached its climax in the summer of 1951, when Nejeldy and Kopecky denounced the Czech bourgeoisie for having
"suppressed"the works of Jirasek, whom only
the Communists always have cherished, a
rather childish accusation considering that
Jirasek was the darling of whole Czech generations. When Radio Free Europe pointed
out in its Czech broadcasts from Munich that
Jirasek had stood always at the right wing
of the Czech nation and had hated Bolshevism
like sin, Kopecky retorted hysterically: "Jirasek is ours, not theirs, because we represent
the people." All the republished novels of
Jirasek had a postscriptum written by Neieldy
hailing poor old Jirasek as a kind of forerunner of the "Socialist Realism" he would
have despised. What a good young Communist does was depicted in Lidove Noviny
on September 2, 1951:
"I maintain my good standard achieved last year in
school. I am going to collect 10 kilos of refuse every
month, I shall devote 25 hours to working in a brigade to help rebuild Prague, and I am going to read
two big books of Jirasek."That is the promise Zdenek

375

Voboril has given and the promises of his schoolmates

are of a similar character.

That was in 1951. From about the middle

of 1952 onward, the Czech classic who had to
be admired uncritically was hardly mentioned
any more by the Czech press. The strange
story of Jirasek's posthumous successes was
thus ended in silence and without any explanation. He had his peace again.
London

Rilke's Literary Remains

By Herman Salinger
Four small books of prose and verse (Rainer
Maria Rilke. Nachlass. I: Aus dent Nachlass
des Grafen C. W. (Ein Gedicht\reis). II:
Briefwechsel in Gedichten mit Eri\a Mitterer
(1924-1926). Ill: Aus Taschen-Biichern und
Mer\-Blattern (1925). IV: Die Briefe an
Grdfin Sizzo (1921-1926). Wiesbaden. Insel.
1950. 41, 63, 88, 91 pages. 4.50, 5, 6, 6 dm),
which appeared approximately at the time of
the twenty-fifth anniversary of the poet's
death, are now discussed here somewhat belatedly. They are concerned entirely with the
final lustrum of Rilke's life. An admiring, venerating, not infrequently idolizing world of
readers already knows the principal workseither in German or in translations that more
or less do justice to the German. It cannot be
denied that a cult exists, that Rilke has become Rilkeanism in many instances where his
name is seen in print.
For this reason it is fortunate and even
wholesome if new material is ploughed up and
brought to the light - not so much for the sake
of discoveries by Rilke "philologists" as in the
hope of re-discovery, fresh encounter. This, I
think, we get from time to time in these little
books.
The group of poems purporting to come
"Aus dem Nachlass des Grafen C. W." contains two or three previously published poems,
notably the "Egyptian" poem; this has been
buried for thirty years in an old Insel Almanack, where it appeared anonymously. Not
that we can expect any of this material to add
a cubit to Rilke's already towering stature.
But to be redirected to the "Karnak" poem or
to meet it for the first time, to experience "the
count's" leafing through his great-aunt's diary
or his sudden burst of lyricism at the sound
of a gust of wind against the pane: These are
all excursions into that Weltinnenraum of
echoes and re-echoings from other Rilke lyrics
which is the essence of Rainer Maria's psyche.
Even the problem raised by the title itself
and the identity of this ghostly "count" in the

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.41 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 09:17:33 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

576

BOOKS ABROAD

is looking for in moral victory. So does his

Fasa\as (Stockholm.Daugava. 1952). While
the offspringof the BritishBrahminsemphasizes the esthetical,Skalbe, son of an EastEuropeanblacksmith,prefersvirtue. "Wilde
may be more colorful and dramatic,"says a
critic, "but here is a more abiding quality
in Skalbe'schild-likepurity of vision, in his
delicate pastel shades and in his unobtrusive
mellow wisdom."His homesicknoblemenare
longing for the smell of the smoke of their
old penateswherethey belongedin childhood
when they were shabby cowherds, and the
grandma stands for "the virtue of knitting,
the virtue of darning . . . the virtueof giving
gifts,"and that of gnawing breadcrusts.Love
for theirnativecountryand for breakingbread
with the poor and orphansis all; everything
else is but vanity.
All Skalbe'sfairy-talesare, however,"modern" in that they refer to the present.Even
those beginningwith "onceupon a time" are
concernedin some way or otherwith the contemporaryills and hopes of Latviansas well
as other nations, while a whole series of his
works deals directlywith war veteransof the
twentieth century and with mothers bewailing their sons fallenon the field of honorduring the War of Liberation.Cobblers,tailors,
beggars, invalids, herdsmen, princes intermingle with deitiesand benevolent"mothers"
- of mythology, which
- guardian presences
help Skalbe'scharactersto find their way to
the virtue which is the highest rank in the
author'shierarchyof values. Virtue alone, accordingto the Latvianwriter,leadsto the real,
the inner,contentment.Some of his fairy-tales
have been translatedinto English (Pussy's
WaterMill; The Apple Tree), German(a collection, Wintermdrchen)yFrench (he pommier d'or), Russian, Lithuanian,Esthonian,
and other languages.
The same volume presentsSkalbeas shortstory teller. This part of the book goes back
as far as his boyhood,but hits the mark best
with the adultreader,for instance,in the story
aboutthe love affairof two young people,the
author'suncle and aunt, seen from the angle
of a boy of six or seven. Cattle driver in his
youthand, lateron, book peddler,ruralteacher, politicalprisonerunder the Czar, journalist, editor, memberof parliament,Skalbeis a
keen observerand congenialchronicler.Every
sentencetells a peculiarstoryof its own, drawA Baltic Master of Fairy-Tale
ing a new portrait,or painting a new landscape. Accordingly,while his short sentences
By Arthur Baumanis
Unlike the books of Oscar Wilde, those of make the book highly "readable,"the reader
the Latvian king of fairy-tale,Karlis Skalbe also has no opportunityto complain of the
(1879-1945), discoverthe treasuremankind absenceof "humaninterest."

castle-refuge of Berg am Irchl where Rilke

stayed in the winter of 1920-21 is a kind of
intimate initiation into mysteries. This was
shortly before his annus mirabilis, 1922. One
feels impelled to seek explanations, of course,
and there really are no pat ones. Both J. B.
Leishman, in the introduction in his (to me)
unsatisfying "Englishing" of the poems
(From the Remains of Count C. W. London.
Hogarth. 1952) and Dieter Bassermann (Der
spate Ril\e, 1947, pp. 353-58) seem to have
let the meaning of soi-disant "automatic" writing slip past them.
Quite obviously, the selections A us Taschen-Euchern und Mer\-Blattern are going to
be found uneven. That there are several very
real gems is undeniable; let me mention only
Spaziergang and "Kennst du das, dass durch
das Laubwerk Schatten. . . ." Scholarship and
criticism here have new matter for careful
calibration, at a slower rate and on a more
accurate basis than in a report of this kind.
Subjectively, one somehow feels less sure
of the exchange of poems with the young
poetess Erika Mitterer. Rilke, in his strange
and sometimes strained relationships with the
anima, the ewig Weibliche, often seems a different Rilke. And is this not predictable where
another personality is so closely involved?
That the last poem of the exchange is dated
in August of 1926 and is the latest known
German poem by Rilke ought not to go unmentioned - nor that it is a haunting, unearthly and deeply Rilkean creation.
The letters to Countess Sizzo are rich in
valuable autobiographical and self-revealing
detail. This is almost self-evident to any reader of Rilke's correspondence, but the statement will have to await later elaborations.
The Insel-Verlag is following its best traditions in bringing out these booklets. One cannot help remembering Rilke's often quoted
statement: "Fame is ultimately but the summary of all misunderstandings that crystallize
about a new name." Real understanding is,
however, added by the appearance of these
poems and letters. The material is new, but
the name no longer is. I cannot help thinking
that we are moving toward deeper realizations
but that Rilke will remain great enough to
elude even a later generation of critics. He
was truly a man like a rose.
Grinnell College

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.41 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 09:17:33 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions