Der Knabe in English

[Gunilla]

Hello Rilke Forum!

Does anyone out there have an English translation of
Der Knabe (from The Book of Pictures / Images)?
I need it for a translation I am working on from the Swedish.
I have googled and googled and googled ... but ... so far ... no luck!
I would be extremely grateful if someone could help me out!

Best wishes,
Gunilla

[Renée]

Hey, Gunilla:

The Boy

I want to become like one of those
who drive through the night with wild horses
with torches, which like unloosened hair
blow in the grand wind of their pursuit.
I want to stand in front as in a skiff,
huge and unfurled like a flag.
Dark, but with a helmet of gold that
gleams restlessly. And lined up behind me
ten men of that same darkness
with helmets that fret as mine does,
now clear as glass, now dark, old and blind.
And one at my side blasts us space
with his trumpet, which flashes and screams out,
and blasts us a black solitude
through which we race like a rapid dream:
the houses fall to their knees behind us,
the streets slant against us,
the squares try to evade us: we seize them,
and our horses sweep down like rain.

Translation by Edward Snow, 1991

Rilkes poem of the fire-brigade has much more drive in the original!

Best wishes, Renée

[Gunilla]

Thank you so much Renée for sending me The Boy!
You are a lifesaver!
All the best wishes from the Baltic Sea.
Gunilla