Saturday, May 9, 2009

Rilke on "living the artist's life"

"Everything is gestation and bringing forth. To let each impression and each germ of a feeling come to completion wholly in itself, in the dark, in the inexpressible, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one's own intelligence, and wait with deep humility and patience the birth-hour of a new clarity: that alone is living the artist's life. Being an arist means not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap, and stands confident in the storms of spring without the fear that after them may come no summer. It does come. But it comes only to the patient, who are there as though eternity lay before them so unconcernedly still and wide.
Rainer Maria Rilke

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you. I had been looking for this quotation and although I had found parts of it, this is the first time I have come across it all. It is truly inspirational!