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January 1, 2008
the one thing that surpasses everything else
One is still so far away from being able to work at all times. Van Gogh could perhaps lose his composure, but behind it there was always his work; he could no longer lose that. And Rodin, when he’s not feeling well, is very close to his work, writes beautiful things on countless pieces of paper, reads Plato and follows him in his thought. But I have a feeling that this is not just the result of discipline or compulsion (otherwise it would be tiring, the way I have been tired from working in recent weeks); it is all joy; it is natural well-being in the one thing that surpasses everything else. Perhaps one has to have a clearer insight into the nature of one’s “task,” get a more tangible hold on it, recognize in it a hundred details. I believe I do feel what van Gogh must have felt at a certain juncture, and it is a strong and great feeling: that everything is yet to be done: everything. But this devotion to what is nearest, this is something I can’t do as yet, or only in my best moments, while it is at one’s worst moments that one really needs it. Van Gogh could paint an Interieur d’hopital, and in his most anxious days he painted the most disquieting objects. How else could he have survived. This is what has to be attained, and I have a feeling it can’t be forced. It must come out of insight, from pleasure, from no longer being able to postpone the work in view of all the many things that have to be done.
Rilke - Letters on Cezanne
Posted by amin at January 1, 2008 3:57 PM