Requiem for Paula Modersohn-Becker (by Rainer Maria Rilke)

17m · Her Half of History · 13 Jul 05:00

One year to the day after Paula Modersohn-Becker died, her friend, the celebrated poet Rainer Maria Rilke, sat down to write a Requiem for her, and today’s episode is that requiem in translation. I suggest listening to last week's episode before this one because the poem has numerous references to Paula and her life: 

·       the amber necklace that appeared in many of her paintings, 

·       her pursuit of still life in which she arranged fruits in a way quite different from the traditional still life bounty, 

·       her pursuit of the nude genre, in which she portrayed women, not as desirable and available (that had been done), but as whole, complete, and creative, 

·       the restlessness with which she moved to and from Paris, to and from her family, to and from the traditional role for women, without fully settling wholeheartedly into any of them

·       and finally the tragic way in which she died in childbirth, age 31, when she had both a painting career and motherhood to look forward to, both of them suddenly cut short.

I will freely admit that I do not understand everything that Rilke has put in this poem. It’s fairly long, at least by my poetry standards, and maybe rambles a bit, but I think that’s intentional. It is an expression of grief, and like grief itself, it ebbs and flows, sometimes poignantly sharp, sometimes just a dull throb, and it goes on and on until it finds not resolution, but maybe resignation. 

Next week I will be back to my usual episodes with an episode on Frida Kahlo

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The episode Requiem for Paula Modersohn-Becker (by Rainer Maria Rilke) from the podcast Her Half of History has a duration of 17:18. It was first published 13 Jul 05:00. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.