German Life and Letters 40:2 January 1987 0016-8777 $2.00

C. F. MEYER AND R. M. RILKE: WHICH ROMAN FOUNTAIN?

MARTIN SUTTON

C. F. MEYER

Der romische Brunnen

Aufsteigt der Strahl und fallend giei3t Er voll der Marmorschale Rund, Die, sich verschleiernd, uberfliei3t In einer zweiten Schale Grund; Die zweite gibt, sie wird zu reich, Der dritten wallend ihre Flut, Und jede nimmt und gibt zugleich

Und stromt und ruht.'

R. M. RILKE

Romische Fontane, Borghese

Zwei Becken, eins das andere iibersteigend aus einem alten runden Marmorrand, und aus dem oberen Wasser leis sich neigend zum Wasser, welches unten wartend stand,

dem leise redenden entgegenschweigend und heimlich, gleichsam in der hohlen Hand ihm Himmel hinter Griin und Dunkel zeigend wie einen unbekannten Gegenstand;

sich selber ruhig in der schonen Schale verbreitend ohne Heimweh, Kreis aus Kreis, nur manchmal traumerisch und tropfenweis

sich niederlassend an den Moosbehangen zum letzten Spiegel, der sein Becken leis von unten lacheln macht mit Ubergangen.2

These two poems have been the subject of much critical attention and have frequently been compared and contrasted with each other - as one commentator wearily puts it: 'bis zum U b e r d r ~ E . ~ It has also been assumed (often, one suspects, just because the two poems have been compared so frequently) that

136 C. F. MEYER AND R. M. RILKE: WHICH ROMAN FOUNTAIN?

Meyer and Rilke wrote about one and the same fountain, and that this fountain is the Fontana ovule (the oval or elliptically based fountain) in the Villa Borghese gardens in Rome. In this article I shall not attempt to add further to the number of literary interpretations of both poems. My aim is to consider firstly whether there is any evidence for believing that the two poems by Meyer and Rilke were inspired by the same fountain, and secondly whether this fountain is in either case the Fontana ovule in the Villa Borghese gardens (Ill. 1).

Ill. 1

In 1957 H. W. Belmore published an article on the two poems in GLL. Although he does not name the fountain, he gives a vivid description of it:

Where four paths meet in the lower part ofthese gardens, a circus is formed with rounded stone seats in each corner, in the shade of a heavy canopy of trees; and in the centre of this cool and dusky place rises the fountain the two poets have immortalized, a simple, almost austere structure of three weathered marble basins filling the air with the perpetual subdued splashing of their falling waters. Sometimes the breeze will divert the high central jet to one side: then it falls like a shower of raindrops beside the lowest basin, over which small boys may be seen leaning while sailing their toy boats. Even on the most glaring summer day, the place is fresh and dark, and it is easy to while away hours in silent reverie in this mossy g r ~ t t o . ~

This description of the fountain and its surroundings would seem to point to the Fontana ovule situated some forty metres to the right of the Viale del Muse0 Borghese

C . F. MEYER AND R. M. RILKE: WHICH ROMAN FOUNTAIN? 137

which leads from the Casino towards the Porta Pinciana. Belmore assumes that Meyer and Rilke wrote their poems about the same fountain:

It is not uncommon for poets to treat the same theme - spring, love, death, or the vanity of all things mortal. Here we have the rarer case of two poems about an object unique in time and place: a piece of architecture, a fountain in the Borghese gardens in Rome.5

Likewise Robert M. Browning in his book Urngang mit Gedichtm states that ‘das Gedicht von Meyer und das Gedicht von Rilke schildern beide denselben Gegenstand: einen Springbrunnen im Park der Villa Borghese in Rom’,6 but he does not indicate which fountain or how he knows this.

It has obviously been both convenient for scholars and helpful for teachers to assume that the two poems by Meyer and Rilke are written about one and the same fountain; but what evidence is there for such an assumption?

As far as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer is concerned, we know that he visited Rome with his sister Betsy in 1858; and according to Betsy’s memoirs, Meyer was impressed by many of the sights of Rome. One of these impressions which he turned into a poem was, in Betsy’s own words, ‘den “schonen Brunnen” der Villa Borghese’.’ The first version of the poem ‘Der romische Brunnen’ was written in 1858, the last in 1882, with several versions in between. The editor of the historical-critical edition of Meyer’s Sumtliche Werke, Hans Zeller, conjec- tures that the most likely source of inspiration for Meyer’s poem was either the Fontana ovule or the Fontana rotonda, the fountain with a circular base situated the same distance from, but to the left of, the Vide del Muse0 Borghese (Ill. 2).’ However, there is nothing in either Meyer’s or his sister’s writings that would precisely and convincingly indicate which fountain was the original occasion of ‘Der romische Brunnen’. We can only assume from Betsy Meyer’s evidence that it must have been one in the Borghese gardens and a very beautiful one at that - ‘den “schonen Brunnen” der Villa Borghese’. The use of the definite article is of interest. It implies that the fountain in question, whichever it happened to be, was distinguished from all others by its exceptional beauty. Few people would deny that the Fontana ovule is in fact one of the most beautiful fountains in the Borghese gardens, far more attractive than the Fontana rotonda which is squat by comparison and far less gracefully proportioned. It may well be possible therefore, on the basis of the little evidence that exists, that the oval fountain was the inspiration for Meyer’s poem; but the case cannot definitely be proven.

When we turn to Rilke, we find likewise that no firm documentary evidence is available as to the identity of the ‘Romische Fontane’. We know that Rilke stayed in Rome from September 1903 and that he lived in a garden studio in the Villa Strohl-Fern adjacent to the Villa Borghese from November 1903 to June 1904. He and his wife Clara were able to visit the Villa Borghese and its gardens on several occasions. He writes in a letter dated 5th November 1903: ‘Der Borghese-Garten war auch uns schon in den ersten Tagen ein vertrauter Zuflucht~ort’.~ This appears to be the only descriptive reference to the Borghese gardens in Rilke’s correspondence at this time. The poem ‘Romische

138 C . F. MEYER AND R. M. RILKE: WHICH ROMAN FOUNTAIN?

Ill. 2

Fontane’ was completed in Paris in July 1906, over two years after his stay in Rome. He h id left Rome in June 1904 and did not return until a brief visit in May 1907, i.e. after the poem was already written.

Despite this lack of evidence, Belmore and other commentators have made assumptions about the identity of Rilke’s ‘Romische Fontane’. Ingeborg Schnack in her book Rilkes Leben und Werk im Bild’O reproduces a photograph of what she considers to be the fountain which is the subject of Rilke’s poem, namely the Fontana ouale. No reasons are given for this assumption. More recently, August Stahl in his Rilke-Kommentar zum lyrischen Werk accepts Ingeborg Schnack’s assumption as valid without further comment. He describes the poem as be- ing ‘angeregt durch die “Romische Fontane” im Park der Villa Borghese (Abb. Schnack 1956 Nr. 107)’ die Rilke w2hrend seines Romaufenthaltes (10.9.1903 - Anfang Juni 1904) gesehen hat.’” The first reference in brackets is to the photographic reproduction in Schnack‘s book, though the illustration is incorrectly numbered.

Now, while it may indeed be possible, if not proven, that Meyer’s poem was inspired by the Fontana ovule, a close scrutiny of Rilke’s poem will show, I believe, that his fountain is quite different in both size and shape from the oval fountain in the Borghese gardens.

In reading Rilke’s ‘Romische Fontane’ one cannot fail to notice that the central basin (the second of the three levels) is the focal point of the poem: nine lines out of the sonnet’s fourteen are devoted to it. A precise description is given of this central basin: the way the water delays its movement (‘wartend’) and

C . F. MEYER AND R. M . RILKE: WHICH ROMAN FOUNTAIN? 139

appears to be held as if in the palm of a hand, the reflection of the surrounding trees and their shadows, the sky above (‘Himmel hinter Grun und Dunkel’), and the slow centrifugal movement of circles spreading out across the surface of the water. One cannot doubt that Rilke is here recreating in words his own visual experience. Yet one glance at the Fontanu ovule (being well over four metres high, it is not a sight easily missed) is enough to reveal that it is impossible to gaze into the central basin from any vantage point near the fountain. Even if one stands on the rim of the fountain’s base, one would have to be seven or eight feet tall in order to see into the surface of this basin. Belmore in fact depicts the poet ‘sitting closely below the fountain’,I2 an assumption which must be belied by the poet’s devoted attention to this central basin. Clearly, if Rilke was, as the text of the poem indicates, able to see directly into the central basin, the fountain of his poem must have been much smaller than the Fontana ovule.

There is further evidence in Rilke’s poem that suggests not only is the size of the fountain different from that of the Fontana ovule, but also the shape. The water falls from the top basin into the central basin in a gently loquacious fashion (‘leise redenden’). One visualises a continuous movement of the water softly splashing in the surface of the basin below. The water then spreads out calmly in this central basin, ‘Kreis aus Kreis’, neither quickly nor violently enough to disturb the reflection of the fountain’s surroundings. From here it lets itself drop, literally drop by drop (‘tropfenweis’) and only occasionally (‘nur manch- mal’), into the water at the lowest level. In other words, whereas the movement of the water from the top to the central basin was continuous and uninterrupted, the movement from the central basin to the lowest level is only occasional, discontinuous, and interrupted. A consideration of hydrodynamics yields the only possible conclusion: the central basin is far larger than the top basin. The same amount of water must be being displaced from one level to the next at each stage, but the area (and probably the volume) of the central basin is so great that this same amount of water is displaced to the lowest level only drop by drop, and then only occasionally. This conclusion is further substantiated by the fact that the water here drips down the hanging moss (‘Moosbehangen’) which has grown on the underside of this central basin, indicating that the motion of the water is far from rapid or violent. Quite the contrary, it is exceedingly slow and gentle.

I suggest therefore that the fountain of Rilke’s poem is considerably smaller than the Fontuna ovule, at most half the size; and that the relative size of the top and central basins respectively is in the order of something like 1 : 5 or 1 : 6 (rather than the 1 : 2 of the oval fountain). One can assume that the subject of Rilke’s poem is one of the more modest and yet more intimate fountains in the gardens of the Villa Borghese (e.g. Ill. 3).

In conclusion, it may be noted that although Rilke seems to have left behind no documentary evidence as to the identity of his Roman fountain, nevertheless there exists a letter written in October 1903 to the ‘young poet’, Franz Xaver Kappus, in which the spirit not only of his poem, but also of the fountain and of the city which is its location, is strikingly expressed:

140 C. F. MEYER AND R. M. RILKE: WHICH ROMAN FOUNTAIN?

Ill. 3

Unendlich lebensvolle Wasser gehen uber die alten Aquadukte in die groi3e Stadt und tanzen auf den vielen Platzen uber steinernen weii3en Schalen und breiten sich aus in weiten, geraumigen Becken und rauschen bei Tag und erheben ihr Rauschen zur Nacht, die hier grol3 und gestirnt ist und weich von Winden. Und Garten sind hier, unvergei3liche Alleen und Treppen, Treppen von Michelangelo ersonnen, Treppen, die nach dem Vorbild abwarts gleitender Wasser erbaut sind, - breit im Gefall Stufe aus Stufe gebarend wie Welle aus Welle. Durch solche Eindrucke sammelt man sich, gewinnt sich zuruck aus dem anspruchsvollen Vielen, das da spricht und schwatzt (und wie gesprachig ist es!), und lernt langsam die sehr wenigen Dinge erkennen, in denen Ewiges dauert, das man lieben, und Einsames, daran man leise teilnehmen kann. . . l 3

C. F. MEYER AND R. M. RILKE: WHICH ROMAN FOUNTAIN? 141

N O l E S

' C . F. Meyer, Samtliche Werke, I, Berne 1963, p. 170. * R. M. Rilke, Samtliche Werke, I, Frankfurt a. M. 1955, p. 529.

Rudolf Eppelsheimer, Hilkes larische Landschaft, Stuttgart 1975, p. 31. ' H. W. Belmore, 'Two Poems on a Fountain in Rome: C . F. Meyer and R. M. Rilke', GLL, 10 (1957), 50.

Ib id . , p. 49. R. M. Browning, Umgang mil Gedichten, New York 1969, p. 136. Quoted by the editor Hans Zeller in: C. F. Meyer, Samtliche Werke, 111, Berne 1967. p. 249. Ib id . , p. 251.

Quoted by Ingehorg Schnack in Rainer Maria Rilke. Chronik seines Lebens und seines Werkes, Frankfurt a. M. 1975, p. 173. lo Wieshaden 1956, ill. 117.

August Stahl, Rilke-Kommenlar zum lyrischen Werk, Munich 1978, p. 212. '' Belmore, op. cit., p. 53. l 3 R. M. Rilke, Bride an einen j u n p Dichter, Frankfurt a. M. 1956, p. 27. The photographs in this article were kindly supplied by Mrs A. Priestley.