“No we’re never gonna survive unless…
We are a little…
[Rilke]”
The following has been given his Seal of approval:
A prick from a rose thorn, Sealed with a “kiss from a rose”.
Poetic allusions in Seal’s "Kiss from a rose": An existential exegesis
“Kiss from a rose” alludes to a prick from a rose thorn suffered by Rainer Maria Rilke which he received whilst in his rose garden; from which he thought he had contracted the infection that ultimately killed him (instead of leukaemia, which he had been diagnosed with).
The rose’s thorn could symbolise: the pain of life; or the painful pointed prick of life as you die; or the pain of death, before you are extinguished, vanished, gone.
Hence, “a kiss from a rose on the grey” [my italics], is not literally referring to “a rose on a grey”, but just alluding to the grey colour of the tombstone, to emphasise the causal link betwixt roses and his untimely interment.
The rose symbolises death, so the kiss from the rose is the kiss of death, which eliminates the greyness of life, replacing it with the bright light of death.
The “light” is death, which “hits the gloom” of life,
Like the sharp thorn that pierced Rilke’s fleisch.
Flowers “in bloom” on Rilke’s grave now grow;
But did I see roses there? Alas, no.
Rilke’s epitaph, as laid out on his tombstone (with capitalisation still intact, as in the original, and my translation) reads thus:
ROSE, OH REINER WIEDERSPRUCH,
LUST,
NIEMANDES SCHLAF ZU SEIN
UNTER SOVIEL
LIDERN.
ROSE, OH RAGING VARIANCE,
LUST,
NOBODY’S SLEEP TO BE
UNDER SO MANY
LIDS.
“No we’re never gonna survive unless… We are a little… [Rilke]”
The following has been given his Seal of approval: A prick from a rose thorn, Sealed with a “kiss from a rose”. Poetic allusions in Seal’s "Kiss from a rose": An existential exegesis
“Kiss from a rose” alludes to a prick from a rose thorn suffered by Rainer Maria Rilke which he received whilst in his rose garden; from which he thought he had contracted the infection that ultimately killed him (instead of leukaemia, which he had been diagnosed with).
The rose’s thorn could symbolise: the pain of life; or the painful pointed prick of life as you die; or the pain of death, before you are extinguished, vanished, gone.
Hence, “a kiss from a rose on the grey” [my italics], is not literally referring to “a rose on a grey”, but just alluding to the grey colour of the tombstone, to emphasise the causal link betwixt roses and his untimely interment.
The rose symbolises death, so the kiss from the rose is the kiss of death, which eliminates the greyness of life, replacing it with the bright light of death.
The “light” is death, which “hits the gloom” of life, Like the sharp thorn that pierced Rilke’s fleisch.
Flowers “in bloom” on Rilke’s grave now grow; But did I see roses there? Alas, no.
Rilke’s epitaph, as laid out on his tombstone (with capitalisation still intact, as in the original, and my translation) reads thus: