Rilke climbed down to the bastions which, jutting to the east and west, were connected to the foot of the castle by a narrow path along the cliffs. Outside, a violent north wind was blowing, but the sun shone and the blue water had a silvery gleam. He wanted to be done with it quickly, and had to concern himself with sums and other such tedious matters. Then, one morning, he received a troublesome business letter. A great sadness came over him he began to think that this winter too would be fruitless. He suspected nothing of what was taking hold inside him though he may have hinted of it in a letter he wrote: “The nightingale is approaching-” Had he perhaps felt what was on its way? But things seemed again to fall silent. Rilke later told me how these elegies arose. Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis-Hohenlohe (1855–1934), the friend and patron who made the castle available to him, relates in her memoir the story of their genesis: During the winter of 1911–12, Rainer Maria Rilke, feeling empty and despondent since completing The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge in 1910, was residing there alone when the inspiration for the elegies came to him.
It was once a Roman watchtower, and Dante supposedly wrote parts of The Divine Comedy there. The Duino Elegies take their name from Castle Duino, an ancient fortress-like structure set high atop cliffs overlooking the Adriatic near Trieste. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us./piracy. Copyright infringement is against the law. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only.
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