"The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge": "Poetry is not emotions, but experiences." By writing this book, Rilke became a poet.
Revised edition publication year / 1973
Regarding Morio Kita's debut novel "The Ghost", Kunio Tsuji says,
As for "The Ghost," the shadow of Thomas Mann can be found in the Mann-esque critical and analytical phrases scattered throughout the entire work.
Although he states this regarding the Thomas Mann-esque aspect, Morio Kita himself speaks more of the influence of "Malte" on this work.
And the one who taught "Malte" to Morio Kita was his mentor from his days at the Matsumoto Higher School, Mr. Ichie Mochizuki, and since I also learned of Mann through the works of Kunio Tsuji and Morio Kita, and the translator was Ichie Mochizuki, I also wanted to read "Malte" in Mr. Mochizuki's translation. That is the reason why I chose the Iwanami Bunko edition translated by Ichie Mochizuki when reading "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge" this time.
1. Why did Rilke write "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge"?
A question I kept thinking about while reading this work was why Rilke wrote "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge."
It goes without saying, but Rilke went to Paris to write things like "Auguste Rodin" for the sculptor Rodin to make a living, and this work was written during his life in Paris. It is said that he started writing it in 1904, after leaving Paris for a while to travel to places like Italy.
This work consists of short fragments, 71 in total (in the Mochizuki version, there are only spaces between sections, so I haven't counted them myself). And it seems that each fragment was not properly planned or calculated. This is also evident from the fact that the images received from each section are subtly different.
I think Rilke might have assembled them like stacking bricks, writing them down whenever he felt like it. When I thought about it that way, I realized that I didn't have to read it from the beginning like a normal novel. Then, I felt like I could get closer to the state of mind Rilke had when he wrote this.
Life in the city is hard to get used to, especially for those who have just come from the countryside. Sometimes you might feel like you're going to be crushed. You might even have a mental breakdown. Wasn't Rilke like that at first? But Rilke wrote about it. No, I can't help but feel that his more sensitive senses than anyone else's made him write it. However, that is not the case throughout the entire book. The impression clearly changes halfway through.
2. A city where people gather to die, or loving
The first half of this work clearly leans towards "death". It is also clear from the opening, which everyone takes as a theme:
People gather in this city to live, but I think of it as a place to die.
However, that mood is not that intense. Although many "deaths" are spoken of and ghosts appear, (especially in the first half) I sometimes received impressions that were "In Search of Lost Time"-like in one section, "Mirrors in the Mirror" or "Lilith"-like in another, and sometimes even like fantasy. In this way, isn't "Malte" not deeply covered by "death," but something that can be read in various ways depending on the person?
Furthermore, especially around the time his father passes away, it clearly moves away from the darkness of "death." Various "deaths" are spoken of in line with his father's "death," and Malte feels anxiety and fear, but after that, through paranoid descriptions and two stories, the theme changes to "love". Couldn't we think that there was some slight change in Rilke while he was writing it down?
3. The reason Rilke created Malte Laurids Brigge
This work takes the form of a young poet named <Malte Laurids Brigge>, created by Rilke, telling the story, rather than the author Rilke himself. Although Rilke himself says that Malte is not him, there are parts among the 71 fragments where it seems clear that Rilke himself is appearing. But leaving that aside, I would like to think about the fact that Rilke created the character of Malte.
In this work, Rilke has Malte say the following:
For poetry is not, as people think, simply emotions (one has emotions early enough)—it is experience. For the sake of a single poem, you must see many cities, many people and things, you must know the animals, you must feel how the birds fly and know the gesture with which the little flowers open in the morning.
Of course, these are Rilke's own words, and according to the commentary by the translator Ichie Mochizuki, Rilke seems to have learned this way of thinking from the respected Rodin. If that is the case, did Rilke not create a third party named Malte in accordance with this idea?
It is just a personal speculation, but perhaps Rilke began writing this as something like a diary. However, if he did that, his own emotions would inevitably take precedence. So, by creating a person different from himself named Malte Laurids Brigge and having him speak, he gave it form as an objective experience rather than emotion—could one not think so? I believe it is not entirely wrong to imagine that by doing so, Rilke gradually broke away from his pre-"Malte" self and became a new poet.
4. By the way
① This work mentions the biblical story of the prodigal son; it goes like this:
A wealthy man had two sons. One day, the younger son went to his father and said, "Give me my share of the property," so the father divided his property between them. A short time later, the younger son converted his property into cash and left home. He then squandered the money in no time and became penniless. Having no choice, he went to someone to ask for work, but he was treated terribly. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he decided to return to his father, thinking that even the hired hands at his father's house had plenty of bread, so he would apologize to his father and ask to be made at least a hired hand.
He returned to his father, begged for forgiveness, and asked to be made at least a hired hand. His father was overjoyed, bought him fine clothes to dress him up, and slaughtered a calf to hold a feast.
The older brother, who had been watching this, became angry and confronted his father, saying, "I have served you for many years and have always obeyed you, yet you have never even allowed me to slaughter a young goat to hold a feast with my friends. Why is this happening?" The father then said to the older brother,
"You are always with me. Everything I have is yours. But your brother was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found. Is it not natural to hold a feast and rejoice?"
② Kunio Tsuji has a critique among his final works titled"The Silence of the Rose: An Attempt at a Rilke Study."Actually, I have left this unread on my shelf, as I felt I couldn't read it without having read any Rilke myself (sweat). Having read "Malte" this time, I think I can finally get around to this as well (I had read his poetry collections).
Besides Fumio Niwa and Kunio Tsuji, there are many others, such as Yukio Mishima and more recent writers, who have been influenced by "Malte." I still don't clearly understand what is so compelling about it after reading it just once. It seems I will continue to engage with "Malte" from time to time in the future.
Thank you for reading this time as well.
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