Rilke's biography is short. Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke was born on December 4, 1875 in Prague in the family of a railway official Josef Rilke and Sophie Rilke (née Entz). Was the only son. Received the name at birth - Rene Carl Wilhelm Johann Joseph Maria Rilke.

1882-1884 Studying at primary school in Prague.

1884 Parents divorce, son stays with mother. Rilke's first children's poems.

1886-1891 Education at the cadet and higher real military school.

1892-1895 Completes secondary education, takes matriculation exams in Prague. Writes the first stories - including Pierre Dumont (1894). The first poetry collection Life and Songs (1894) is published.

1896 Studying at the University of Prague, first at the Faculty of Philosophy, then at the Faculty of Law. The poetry collection “Victims of Larams” is published.

1897 - first trip to Italy (Arco, Venice). Upon returning to Germany - acquaintance with Lou Andreas-Salome, the awakening of interest in Russia. In October 1897 - moving to Berlin, where Rilke settles until 1901, studies at the University of Berlin. He writes three issues of poetry collections "Plantain", a collection of poems "Crowned with Dreams".

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1898 A collection of poems "Christmas Eve", a collection of short prose "Past Life" and a drama "Without a Present" are published. In the spring - the second trip to Italy (Arco, Florence, Viareggio).

1899 From April to June - the first trip to Russia (Moscow - St. Petersburg) with his then girlfriend Lou Andreas-Salome, at the insistence of which he changed his first name Rene to the more "masculine" Rainer. There he met Leo Tolstoy, the artists Ilya Repin and Leonid Pasternak, Boris Pasternak's father. In Germany, "Two Prague Stories" and a collection of poems "For My Holiday" (Mir zur Feier) are published.

1900 A collection of short prose "On the Lord God and Others" was published, the first edition of "Stories about the Lord God" (1900), a book that reflected Rilke's Russian and Italian impressions. From May to August - the second stay in Russia (Moscow - Tula - Yasnaya Polyana - Kyiv - Kremenchug - Poltava - Kharkov - Voronezh - Saratov - Simbirsk - Kazan - Nizhny Novgorod - Yaroslavl - Moscow). During his second visit to Moscow, he again met with the Pasternak family and met the poet Spiridon Drozhzhin. In 1900-1901 he wrote several poems in Russian. Later, he called two places his homeland: the Czech Republic and Russia. Subsequently, Rilke corresponded (partly in verse) with Marina Tsvetaeva, although they never met in person. Tsvetaeva dedicated the poem "New Year" and the essay "Your Death" to the memory of Rilke. Intensive studies in Russian literature (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov) and art, translations from Russian (“The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, S. Drozhzhin, Z. Gippius). Since August, at the invitation of the artist Heinrich Vogeler, Rilke has been living in the village of Worpswede, a kind of artists' colony, where he meets the artist Clara Westhof and the sculptor Paula Becker. The first one will soon become the poet's wife, the second one he will dedicate his famous requiem "One friend each."

1901 Marries Clara Westhoff, daughter of a sculptor (Clara Westhoff). In December, daughter Ruth was born.

1902 The collection of short stories "The Last", the story "The Defeated Dragon", the drama "Life as Life", the first version of the collection "Early Poems", and the first edition of the "Book of Pictures" are published. In August - he moves to Paris, which becomes the center for his wandering life. Meet Rodin.

1903 Rilke's two books on art are published, Worpswede and Auguste Rodin. Correspondence with Franz Kappus begins, which will last until 1908 and which will then form the book Letters to a Young Poet. Trip to Italy, (Genoa, Viareggio), summer holidays in Worpswede. In autumn, he moves to Rome.

1904 The book of prose "Stories about the Lord God" is published. The drama "The White Princess" is over. From the end of June to December he lives in Sweden, and then in Denmark.

1905 The poet lives in Meudon, near Paris, in Rodin's country workshop, and works as his secretary. On Christmas Day the Book of Hours is published.

1906 Travels to Chartres in January and begins a cycle of poetry about Chartres Cathedral. In the spring - a trip to Germany. In May - a break with Rodin, who fires Rilke without warning, after which he moves to Paris. Works on the first part of "New Poems". The Song of Love and Death by Cornet Christoph Rilke (written in 1899) and the second edition of the Book of Pictures were published.

1907 Lives in Capri and meets with Maxim Gorky. He met and became friends with Rudolf Kassner. Then until the end of October - in Paris. Attends the exhibition of Cezanne in the "Autumn Salon", from the letters of this time the book "Letters about Cezanne" will be compiled later. The first part of "New Poems" is published. Republishes the book "Auguste Rodin", supplemented by the text of the report on the great sculptor.

1908 Trip to Italy. In May - moving to Paris and the resumption of intensive communication with Rodin. New Poems Part II and a translation of Sonnets from Portuguese by the English poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning are published.

1909 The book Requiem is published. He meets Princess Maria von Thurn-und-Taxis Hohenlohe, whose patronage and support Rilke will enjoy until the end of his life. The second revised and expanded edition of Early Poems is published.

1910 First stay in the Thurn und Taxis castle Duino near Trieste, then Venice and Paris. Since November he has been traveling in North Africa. Publication of the Notes of Malte Laurids Brigge.

1911 Continuation of travel through North Africa, then returns to Paris. Travels from Paris by car with Princess Maria von Thurn-und-Taxis to Duino.

1912 The emergence of the poetic cycle "The Life of the Virgin Mary" and the first "Duino Elegies". Trips to Venice and Spain. Translates from French an anonymous sermon of the 17th century "The Love of Magdalene".

1913 The Life of the Virgin, a collection of early lyric "First Poems", and a French translation of the "Portuguese Letters" attributed to the Portuguese nun Marianna Alcoforado (1640-1723) are published. Starts work on translations of Michelangelo's lyrics.

1914 The poetic cycle "Five Hymns" is created, dedicated to the outbreak of the war.

1915 All year - in Munich. Return to the Duino Elegies.

1916 Rilke was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army in Vienna for six months, in the military archive.

1918 Rilke's translation of "Twenty-Four Sonnets by Louise Labe of Lyons" (from Italian and French, 16th century) is published. Latest translations from Michelangelo, translates two sonnets of Petrarch.

1920 Poetry cycle "From the legacy of Count KV". The drama "The White Princess" has been published.

1921 Lives in Muzot Castle, near Zurich. The beginning of intense creative work. First translations from Paul Valery.

1922 Lives almost without a break all year in Musot. In February, the period of creative takeoff. The poet completes the "Duino Elegies" and creates "Sonnets to Orpheus". In December - the apogee of work on the translations of Paul Valery. "Sonnets to Orpheus" were written by Rilke in a very short time, almost "in the same breath", in 1922 in the Museau castle. Rilke wrote 55 poems in 14 days. They were published as a separate book already in 1923. This was the peak of Rilke's work, and at the same time his last significant book of poetry, although before his death in 1926 he wrote another collection of poems in French. The sonnets are dedicated to the memory of the young dancer Vera Oukama Knoop, the daughter of Rilke's acquaintances, who died at the age of 19 from leukemia.

1923 Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus published. Since 1923, he spent a long time in the Territet sanatorium on Lake Geneva due to deteriorating health. Doctors could not give him a correct diagnosis for a long time. Only shortly before his death, he was diagnosed with leukemia (leukemia), from which he died on December 29, 1926.

1924 Lives again in Musot. A new period of creative activity: there are masterpieces of late lyrics. In addition, Rilke writes poetry in French. In summer - a month in the resort of Ragaz.

1925 Valéry's book of translations is published in Germany.

1926 Lives in Musote and Ragaz. Intensively corresponded with M. I. Tsvetaeva. Since autumn - alternately in Musot, Lausanne, Sion, Sierre. A book of French poems by Rilke "Gardens" is published with the appendix "Valezian quatrains". Latest translations from Paul Valéry. Since November 30 - again at the Val-Mont clinic. December 29 - Rilke's death.

On December 4, 1875, a boy was born in Prague, who received the name Rene Carl Wilhelm Johann Joseph Maria Rilke. His father, Joseph Rilke, tried to make a military career in his youth, but did not succeed in this field and served in a railway company. His wife, Sophia Entz, was the daughter of an imperial adviser.

The future of little Rene was predetermined by the ambitions of his closest relatives. At the age of eight, he entered a regular elementary school and was more inclined towards the humanities, but the boy's inclinations did not worry his father too much. In 1884, Joseph Rilke divorced his wife, and after the divorce they divided the children: Rene, the eldest, lived with his father, and the youngest son stayed with his mother. Perhaps it was the divorce of his parents that pushed the future poet to poetry, but no one paid attention to his early poems. Twelve-year-old René was sent by his father to a cadet school.

Rene did not feel any desire to become an officer and continued to write poetry. In his last year, he sent his creations to the newspaper, and the young poet was published, but that publication did not change anything in René's life. In 1891 he was transferred to a higher military school, where he was soon declared unfit for service due to poor health. But happiness was short-lived - deeply distressed Josef Rilke sent his son to the Linz Trade Academy. With such an education, Rene was ready to accept - at least the barracks did not threaten him here. But already in May 1892, after only six months of study, an uncle, his mother's brother and a successful lawyer appeared in his life. He had no sons of his own and wanted his nephew to continue his business. Having found out that the relative intended to transfer his law office to Rene over time, Joseph Rilke ordered his son to return to Prague. The education he received did not allow Rene to enter the university, and for another three years he had to study at the gymnasium.

At the beginning of 1893, Rene found his first real admirer. Valeria von David-Ronfeld, the niece of Julius Zeuer, the Czech poet, was a well-read girl and was seriously carried away by her new acquaintance - but rather by him than by his work, then still immature and more imitative. René called his first poetry collection "Life and Songs" and dedicated it to Valeria. With her money, the collection was published in December 1894, but did not bring fame or money to the young poet. Later, Rilke not only did not like to think about this edition, but even insisted on withdrawing the collection from the stores.

In 1895, his second book was published: the collection "Victims of Laram", consisting of impressionistic poems. The general plot of the collection was a poetic walk through his native Prague - but, in addition to descriptions of the old city, the poems contained a clear reference to the history of the Czech people and their folklore. Prague then belonged to Austria-Hungary, and therefore the reaction of readers to the ideological component of the collection was far from unambiguous. But the poems themselves masterfully combined the concreteness of images and musicality, and this combination became characteristic of Rilke's entire work.

In the same year, Rene brilliantly passed the exams at the gymnasium and became a student at the University of Prague. His father did not like his son's penchant for art, and he tirelessly demanded that Rene not put his poetry above all else, but finally took up his mind and devoted himself to jurisprudence. A year later, Rilke, tired of other people's decisions, made his own choice and told his relatives that he wanted to write. The result was a break with the family and departure from Prague.

Settling in Munich, Rene studied philosophy at the university for two semesters, and in the summer of 1897 he left for Berlin, where he continued his education. In 1898, he traveled around Italy, and when he returned, he continued his acquaintance with Lou Andreas-Salome, which began in Munich. Lu was a writer and the daughter of a general who was in the service of the Russian emperor. Despite the fifteen-year age difference, she managed to attract Rilke not only as a creative person, but also as a woman. However, the young lover did not cause much enthusiasm for the married writer - but she appreciated the poet in him and influenced his future life a lot. He dedicated poems to her and even changed the handwriting, trying to write in the same way as Lou. By the way, it was Lou who advised him to change his name to a more “masculine” one - this is how Rene turned into Reiner. Close communication lasted four years and ceased, apparently, because of Rilke's desire to marry Lou. She did not intend to divorce her husband, but she retained her friendship with the poet - correspondence between former lovers continued until Rilke's death.

It was thanks to Lou Andreas-Salome that Rilke became interested in Russian culture and began to learn the Russian language - later he even wrote poetry in it. In 1899, the Andreas couple took him on a trip to Russia. The young poet visited Leo Tolstoy with them, met Ilya Repin and Leonid Pasternak, the artist and father of the poet Boris Pasternak. A year later, Rilke again went to Russia and lived for several days in Yasnaya Polyana with Tolstoy. He idealized the Russian way of life in many ways, seeing in it the possibility of the unity of man, nature and God. The result of his travels in Russia was the collection "Book of Hours", which was written in the form of a diary narrative of an Orthodox monk.

From 1899 to 1902, Rilke lived in Worpswede, a bohemian colony near Bremen. The artists who settled in this place despised the academic routine and tried to live in unity with nature, and therefore Rilke was very interested in their community. In 1901 he met Clara Westhoff in Worpswede and soon married her. In December of the same year, they had a daughter, whom the couple named Ruth.

Clara, who was engaged in sculpture and lived in Paris for a year, enthusiastically told her husband about the great sculptor Auguste Rodin, whose workshop she visited. In the summer of 1902, Rilke received an offer from the art critic Muther to write a monograph about Rodin. Agreeing, the poet asked Rodin for a meeting by letter and in September he and his family moved to Paris. He finished the monograph in 1903, and soon it was published, and four years later a report was added to it, with which Rilke spoke while traveling through Austria-Hungary and Germany.

Paris made a dual impression on the poet: in an undoubtedly great and beautiful city, the center of European culture, money and poverty ruled. Unpleasant impressions were to some extent smoothed out by friendship with Auguste Rodin. In 1905, Rilke even became his personal secretary, but a year later he refused this job, tired of the sculptor's imbalance and too heavy duties, which occupied almost all of the poet's time. And Rilke needed time - he wrote a lot, and not only poetry, but also stories, dramas and articles devoted to art, and by this time he had already gained considerable fame, however, to a greater extent in literary circles.

In 1910, his only novel was published under the title Notes of Malte Laurids Brige. At the same time, Rilke left Paris - he traveled around North Africa, and a year later he visited Egypt. In the same period, he met Maria von Thurn-und-Taxis, the Austrian princess - the poet enjoyed her support and patronage until the end of his days. From the autumn of 1911 until July 1912, Rilke lived in the family castle of the Taxis on the Mediterranean coast, and here he began to write "Duino Elegies", work on which was completed only ten years later.

During the First World War, Rilke spent half a year in the Austro-Hungarian army, working in the archives. According to the researchers of his work, it was the war that finally shaped Rilke as a poet. His poems made a serious revolution in German literature, bringing German and Austrian poetry out of stagnation. Thanks to Rilke, the “impressionistic” cult of illusory aesthetics and fleeting impressions left the poetry of his homeland and strong, “objective” values ​​appeared, which Rilke himself was able to express surprisingly harmoniously.

In 1922, friends gave the poet Musot Castle in Switzerland, but a year later he spent long months in the Valmont sanatorium near Lake Geneva - his health was steadily deteriorating. The diagnosis was made only at the beginning of the summer of 1926: the poet was diagnosed with leukemia.

Rainer Maria Rilke died on December 29, 1926 in a Swiss clinic. He was buried near the wall of the church, located on the Castle Hill near the town of Raron.

Rainer Maria Rilke, biography

Austrian poet, who, like Franz Kafka, was born in the Czech Republic, but wrote his works in Austrian. He created new samples of philosophical lyrics, going in his work from symbolism to neoclassical modernist poetry.

Rilke has been called the "Prophet of the Past" and the "Orpheus of the 20th Century".

Born December 4, 1875 in Prague, in the family of a railway official. Rilke studied at the Military School, after that, at the Trade Academy, which he never graduated from. He attended lectures at Prague, Munich and Berlin universities.

In 1894, the first collection of poems, Life and Songs, was published.

1897-1900 traveled in Italy, Russia, Ukraine.

Since 1902 he settled in Paris, for some time he worked as a secretary for the sculptor Rodin. He entered a period of creative maturity, showing himself as a poet - collections of poems "Book of Hours" (1905), two-volume "New Poems" (1907-1908); prose writer - the novel "Notes of Malte Laurids Brigge" (1910); essayist - monographs "Worpswede" (1903) and "Roden" (1905).

1916 - military service in Vienna.

In 1917-1918. moved to Switzerland. He gave public readings of his poems and reports.
1923 - completed the cycles "Danubian Elegies" and "Sonnets to Orpheus".

100 great poets Eremin Viktor Nikolaevich

RAINER MARIA RILKE (1875-1926)

Rainer Karl Wilhelm Joseph Maria Rilke was born on December 4, 1875 in Prague, which at that time was the capital of Bohemia, one of the lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The boy was the only child in the family. His father, Karl Wilhelm Joseph Rilke, came from peasants and served as an official in the railway department. René's mother, born Sophie Entz, was the daughter of a merchant. The family was poor, but the position of a civil servant forced them to portray material well-being. In addition, the parents could not stand each other and always cursed behind closed doors. In such an atmosphere of hypocrisy, pretense and hidden hatred between loved ones, the first years of Rene's life passed.

The death of the first daughter, the boy's sister, finished off the hysterical Sophie: she completely went into exalted religiosity.

Parents sent Rene to a cadet military school in the city of St. Pölten, near Vienna. In the autumn of 1890, the young man entered the higher real military school in Merish-Weiskirchen, but due to poor health he left the service and returned home. By that time, Rilke was already addicted to writing.

Dissatisfied with the fact that his son would not become an officer, Mr. Rilke assigned the young man to the Trade Academy in Linz. But it didn't work there either. René studied at the academy from September 1891 to May 1892 and dropped out.

Later, the young man passed the matriculation exams as an external student. And he devoted all his free time to creativity, and he was unusually self-confident and even arrogant in breaking through his creations. The first stories were written by Rilke in 1894, at the same time his first collection of poetry, Life and Songs, was published.

In his youth, Rilke literally filled up magazines with his graphomaniac writings. Moreover, engrossed in the idea of ​​"the release of poetry to the people", he composed a literary letter entitled "Away with expectations!" and with the financial support of his fiancee Valeria, a girl with great wealth and connections, he printed it and began to send it free of charge to hospitals, craft and food unions, distributed it in front of theaters, in literary and artistic clubs to which he belonged. The letter was not successful, which greatly disappointed the bride, and they parted.

For a long time, the poet combined his studies at universities with literary work. For a year he studied at the University of Prague, first at the Faculty of Philosophy, then at the Faculty of Law. At the same time, he published the poetry collections Victims of Larams and Crowned with Dreams. In 1896, Rilke moved to Munich to enroll in the department of philosophy at the local university. However, he studied there for only two semesters. Throwing classes, the poet went on a trip to Italy.

Rilke returned to Germany in the spring of 1897, and soon his famous meeting with Lou Andreas-Salome took place. It happened in May. Lu, along with her longtime friend, the famous African traveler Frieda von Bülow, watched the new production at the theater on Gaertner Square in Munich. Among the spectators was Rene. The young poet has long been in love with a famous writer and now wants to meet her personally. Lou Salome was thirty-five, Rilke was twenty-one. The romance began.

In the very first year of their acquaintance, Salome advised the poet to change the amorphous French name Rene to the sonorous German Reiner. She also instilled in the young man a love for Russia and for Russian literature.

The poet quickly became attached to Salome, so much so that he followed her to Berlin. From that time on, the three of them began to live together: Lou, her husband Andreas and Rilke. The young man entered the University of Berlin. Then in one year he learned Russian.

Lu called the poet to Russia. Since no one had money for the trip, she wrote a series of short stories for Gott's publishing house, as well as many essays, critical articles, and essays for popular magazines. Rilke also worked intensively, wrote collections of poems “Christmas Eve” and “Me for a Holiday”, a collection of short prose “Past Life”, the drama “Without a Present” ... But all these were weak, untalented works and did not bring money.

April 24, 1899 they went to Russia. The journey lasted until June 18. Impressed by the trip, Rilke decided to translate The Tale of Igor's Campaign into German. A year later, this plan was realized. Since then, Rilkev's translation has rightfully been considered the best of the German versions of the Russian national epic... At the same time, the poet translated Chekhov's The Seagull and many of M. Yu. Lermontov's poems into German.

Rilke's second train to Russia took place on May 7 - August 22, 1900. Rilke summed up the final result of his travels to Russia in 1905 with the collection "Book of Hours", which consists of three parts - "The Book of Monastic Life", "The Book of Pilgrimage", "The Book of Poverty and Death".

Upon his return to Germany, the poet parted ways with Andreas-Salome. At the invitation of the artist Heinrich Vogeler, he settled in a colony of painters near Bremen in the village of Worpswede. There, Reiner met the artist Clara Westhoff and the sculptor Paula Becker. A year later, Rilke married the artist Clara Westhof. They had a daughter, Ruth. However, the couple soon separated. Biographers to this day cannot explain why Rilke married Westhof at all, since at that time he was deeply in love with Paula Becker. The woman died early, and Reiner was very worried about her death. It is believed that Rilkev's famous Requiem for a Friend is dedicated specifically to Paula.

Rilke's characteristic desire to "live among the crowd, but be homeless in time" predetermined his hermitic fate and homelessness. At the beginning of the 20th century, Rilke acquired a family coat of arms, naively believing that he belonged to an ancient knightly family - this delusion was perpetuated by his impressionistic poem in prose “The Song of Love and Death by Cornet Christoph Rilke”.

Restriction in means and artistic searches led Rainer in 1902 to Paris. There he met Auguste Rodin and wrote a book about him. In 1905, the great sculptor invited Reiner to become his secretary. Rilke happily agreed.

French impressionist painting and symbolic poetry were reflected in the poetry of Rilke, which in the Parisian period acquired plasticity, breadth of range and focus on conveying the unchanging essence of things.

Life went on. In March 1906, the poet's father died. Three years later, the famous poetry collection Requiem was published, and soon after that, Rainer met Princess Maria von Thurn-und-Taxis Hohenlohe, whose patronage and support he enjoyed until the end of his life.

At the same time, Rilke wrote dramatic and prose works. In 1911, his versatile decadent novel The Notes of Malte Laurids Brige was published. After the publication of Rilke's book, Thurn und Taxis traveled by car through France and Italy, through Lyon, Avignon, San Remo, Bologna and Venice.

In Italy, for a long time, Duino Castle on the Adriatic coast became the poet's favorite refuge. Here he created many outstanding works, including the poetic cycles "The Life of Mary" and partly "Duino Elegies".

The First World War began, which plunged the poet into horror and despair. Rilke dedicated the poetic cycle "Five Hymns" to her. The poet was looking for support in the terrible world of suffering and death. And I remembered Lou Salome.

At the height of the war, in March 1915, Reiner begged Lou to come to him in Munich, where he lived at that time with his girlfriend, the young artist Lulu Albert-Lazar. Andreas-Salome arrived with her next admirer, Baron Emil von Gebsattel. The meeting was warm and gave the poet new hopes.

And in January 1916, Rilke was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army for six months. He serves in Vienna, in the military archive, in company with Stefan Zweig and other famous German writers.

Rilke met the end of the war and the defeat of Germany in Munich. Together with the entire German nation, for a long time he was in a state of inner depression and was mainly engaged only in translations.

In recent years, Rilke traveled a lot. He got his inspiration back. In February 1922, in three weeks, the poet completed the Duino Elegies and created the Sonnets to Orpheus. In these difficult-to-understand works, Rilke developed a deeply original symbolic cosmology and rose to new metaphysical heights. The second rise occurred in 1924, when the poet created many masterpieces of his later lyrics.

In the mid-1920s, the poet was diagnosed with leukemia. From that time on, his life was reduced to intensive treatment either in the Val Montreux clinic (near Montreux) on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, or in various sanatoriums.

Shortly before the death of the poet, through the mediation of Lou Salome, an intensive correspondence began between Rilke and Marina Tsvetaeva. It was devoted to questions of poetry.

Rainer Maria Rilke died on December 29, 1926 at the Val Mont hospital. On January 2, 1927, he was buried at Raron Castle on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Rilke's works have been translated into Russian by M. Tsvetaeva, A. Akhmatova, B. Pasternak, Yu. Anisimov, Y. Gordon, V. Admoni and others.