February 6, 2011

Unsayable

The White House at Night, by Vincent van Gogh


Things are not nearly so comprehensible and sayable as we are generally made to believe. Most experiences are unsayable; they come to fullness in a realm that words do not inhabit. And most unsayable of all are works of art, which —alongside our transient lives— mysteriously endure.

Paris, February 17, 1903
Letters to a Young Poet

16 comments:

  1. This reminds me of the opening lines of the Taoteching: The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.

    Works of art, music included, speak in a wordless language just as true, perhaps even more true, than any speech. Nature, too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The unsayable, I agree with this quote, completely.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I feel this too.

    Yet I am conscious of the fact that this writer, Rilke, has done it better than anyone I've come across before -- bringing the visible in to the invisible, and putting it into words. It's like what we've said about translation: you can't get it completely right, carrying the special nuances from the original language, but still I feel that profound interior connection with his thoughts in words . . . . translated from his heart-mind, into German words, into English words! So in a way, this reading is a good reminder today, that still, his words are not the moon, but only the finger pointing at the moon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Words are symbols and, as such, they always limit the reality they are designed to reflect. To me, it is reassuring the hear Rilke remind everyone that symbols are not reality, and that the most valuable experiences "come to fullness in a realm that words do not inhabit."

    ReplyDelete
  5. words, paintings, are like signposts, clues, doorways, windows that allow us to see where the real riches lie. steven

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think that Rilke is placing Art on a higher plane and alluding to art criticism here, as he does at the end of his last letter to Mr. Kappus. All art is real and unsayable,therefore he is highly critical of all attempts made by 'half-artistic' professions to explain it:
    'Art too is just a way of living, and however one lives, one can, without knowing,prepare for it; in everything real one is closer to it, more its neighbour, than in the unreal half-artistic professions, which, while they pretend to be close to art, in practice deny and attack the existence of all art - as, for example, all of journalism does and almost all criticism and three quarters of what is called(and wants to be called) literature.'

    ReplyDelete
  7. Perhaps the gift is to find the art in the everyday, to see every moment as a work of art -- unsayably beautiful.

    Love this -- "his words are not the moon, but only the finger pointing at the moon."

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes! Robert and I were just talking about an artist who shoots in film and we were moaning about the depth and beauty of his prints. Why, why, why? Trying to understand the difference. The tones? The range? The way light is captured? And I said, yes, yes, but, something else, something I can't conceive, something I can't put words to, something that exists before words even, before the conception even, perhaps before the art and the artist himself, perhaps, and yet, and yet - here it is. Unsayable. Yes.

    xo
    erin

    ReplyDelete
  9. Unsayable. Incomprehensible. But we speak, say, witness, write, paint, create art, because these things we are compelled to do. This is being human. Knowing, as we do it, that the fullness, the completion, lies elsewhere, beyond us, out of our hands. We, Rilke, the artist, the translator - fingers pointing at the moon, as Ruth reminds us so evocatively.

    ReplyDelete
  10. i came by louise and i'm thrilled about your blog because i like rilke a lot - and i'm german and can read him in german. regarding translation, i have to say, there are some really good translations of his work around, yet sometimes there are nuances that make the poem and it's not really possible to translate it properly.
    good job - will stick around...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Enjoyed and agree with this quote. And the Van Gogh...

    ReplyDelete
  12. this expresses my constant struggle to create --then answer is to let go..just be and just do!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hey! Came across your blog via a web search for Rilke. I love his work and am currently reading the same book that you quote your posts from :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Think of a hug when you most need one. Words can never replace a warm, comforting embrace. Or a hand laid gently upon another showing compassion often says more than words ever could.

    The other day I said "I love you SO much" to my three year old son. He usually chimes back and says "SO much!" But he placed his hand next to my cheek (like I do to him all the time) and the leapt into my arms and wrapped his legs around me and hugged for me for all he was worth. No words will every be able to explain the fullness of my heart!

    ReplyDelete
  15. oh yes, this.
    it's why I stare at many a comment box as well.

    ReplyDelete

"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Go ahead, bloom recklessly!