(Portrait of Rainer Maria Rilke by Helmut Westoff 1901)

自画像

代代相传的古老贵族的坚贞

在眉毛粗重的线条上展现出来

温和的蓝眼睛 仍然带着孩子般无邪的忧伤

还有谦逊 这里 那里 

那不是奴仆的谦卑 那是一种顺从的

服务者的眼神 带着女性的色彩

一个普通的嘴巴 又大又平

寡言少语却又毋庸置疑

额头正直坦率 投下了

向下的安静俯视的阴影

这只是大体上的一种朦胧印象

从未尝试在苦痛和喜乐之中

海汇百川以集大成

然而，在这些零散之外，遥远的未来

严肃而持久的命运正在注定

SELF-PORTRAIT
by Rainer Maria Rilke

The stamina of an old long-noble race
in the eyebrows’ heavy arches. In the mild
blue eyes the solemn anguish of a child
and here and there humility — not a fool’s
but feminine: the look of one who serves.
The mouth quite ordinary large and straight
composed yet not willing to speak out
when necessary. The forehead still naive
most comfortable in shadows looking down.

This as a whole just hazily foreseen —
never in any joy of suffering
collected for a firm accomplishment;

and yet as though from far off with scattered things
a serious true work were being planned.

（Translated by Stephen Mitchell)

SELF-PORTRAIT
by Rainer Maria Rilke

The steadfastness of generations of nobility

shows in the curving lines that form the eyebrows.

And the blue eyes still show traces of childhood fears

and of humility here and there, not of a servant's,

yet of one who serves obediently, and of a woman.

The mouth formed as a mouth, large and accurate,

not given to long phrases, but to express

persuasively what is right. The forehead without guile

and favoring the shadows of quiet downward gazing.

This, as a coherent whole, only casually observed;

never as yet tried in suffering or succeeding,

held together for an enduring fulfillment,

yet so as if for times to come, out of these scattered things,

something serious and lasting were being planned.

(Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming)