I thought the conversants might want to read an English translation of another of Rilke's poems on praise,
reminiscent of the passage in Godard recently quoted:
Oh speak, poet, what do you do? --I praise
But what of the monstrous and the murderous days, how do you stand them,
How do you endure? --I praise
But the anonymous and nameless grays,
How do you still invoke them? --I praise
What right have you in every costume, every mask, to be genuine (eigentlich)?
--I praise
And the stillness and turbulence know you like star and storm...
--because I praise
John J.L. Mood's translation (with emendations) from his anthology of Rilke "On Love and Other Difficulties"
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