Washing the Corpse

Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated from the German by Steve Kronen

They’d grown used to him there, but when they litthe kitchen lamp and the flamefluttered in the dark, he, the one without a name,seemed all the more un-nameable. They washed his throatand knowing nothing of his life,contrived one for the stranger.One of them turned her head to coughand set her sponge, soaked with vinegar,on his face. The other pausedand drops fell from her stiff-bristledbrush while his contorted hand tried to convincethem, tried to show the entire housethat he no longer thirsted.He no longer thirsted. And they, abashed,coughed, and set again to workbut harder now and washedthe man. Their shadows on the silent walls jerkedand flailed as though inside a net until there came an endto the washing. Night, in the bare window,shrugged. And he, whose name they didn’t know,naked and clean now,gave commands.

Leichen-Wäsche

Sie hatten sich an ihn gewöhnt. Doch alsdie Küchenlampe kam und unruhig brannteim dunkeln Luftzug, war der Unbekannteganz unbekannt. Sie wuschen seinen Hals,und da sie nichts von seinem Schicksal wussten,so logen sie ein anderes zusamm,fortwährend waschend. Eine musste hustenund ließ solang den schweren Essigschwammauf dem Gesicht. Da gab es eine Pauseauch für die zweite. Aus der harten Bürsteklopften die Tropfen; während seine grausegekrampfte Hand dem ganzen Hausebeweisen wollte, dass ihn nicht mehr dürste.Und er bewies. Sie nahmen wie betreteneiliger jetzt mit einem kurzen Husterdie Arbeit auf, so dass an den Tapetenihr krummer Schatten in dem stummen Mustersich wand und wälzte wie in einem Netze,bis dass die Waschenden zu Ende kamen.Die Nacht im vorhanglosen Fensterrahmenwar rücksichtslos. Und einer ohne Namenlag bar und reinlich da und gab Gesetze.

Translator’s Note

I’ve tried, in “Washing the Corpse,” to capture that Rilkean demand for our penetrating and solitary attention to the subject at hand and, (per Rilke), the attention placed on us by the subject at hand. I’ve followed Rilke’s rhyme scheme. This translation is included in a new manuscript, “After Words—50 Versions from Sappho to Claribel Alegría,” a collection of poems composed via others’ translations, cribs, commentaries, and dictionaries.
—Steve Kronen

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Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) was one of the greatest lyric German-language poets. Born in Prague, he published his first book of poems, Leben und Lieber, at age 19. In 1897 he met Lou Andreas-Salomé, the talented and spirited daughter of a Russian army officer, who influenced him deeply. In 1902 he became a friend, and for a time the secretary, of Rodin, and it was during his 12-year Paris residence that Rilke enjoyed his greatest poetic activity. In 1919 he went to Switzerland where he spent the last years of his life. It was there that he wrote his last two works, Duino Elegies (1923) and Sonnets to Orpheus (1923).

Steve Kronen‘s books are Homage to Mistress Oppenheimer (Eyewear), Splendor (BOA), and Empirical Evidence (University of Georgia). His poems have appeared widely in the US and the UK. He is a librarian in Miami where he lives with his wife, novelist Ivonne Lamazares. His website is www.stevekronen.com,

June 2020

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Ron Slate

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