Rainer Maria Rilke and Vladimir Mayakovsky? One is Vladimir Mayakovsky, a representative of the Futurism movement, and the other is Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the leading figures of German Romanticism. These two poets may seem unrelated to each other at first sight. Nevertheless, when Rainer Maria Rilke's and Vladimir Mayakovsky’s thoughts on poetry are brought together, some similar suggestions on poetry that are highly relevant to our daily lives can be found.
Firstly, Mayakovsky points out at the very beginning of the article that a real poet must produce his own rules for his poetry.[1]It can be seen that he did not write this text to impose others a set of rules on poetry. Actually, I think, this turns out how subjective poetry is.Rilke similarly emphasizes the subjectivity of art in Letters to the Young Poet, although Mayakovsky writes from a more social perspective and Rilke from a more individual perspective. Rilke says that critical words are far from the work of art and these critical words bring more or less misunderstanding.[2] Also, Rilke calls artworks as “mysterious beings”.[3]It exposes that it is highly subjective that a poem we write by what standards will and may not be liked. However, at the slightest criticism, we get discouraged and upset. Perhaps Rilke was aware of how tiring this search for outside approval would be for artists. Rather than seeking for an outside criticism, Rilke suggests Kappus go inside himself.[4] and tells Kappus to go to his own childhood and the treasures of his own childhood.[5]For instance, if you are interested in writing, maybe you have had feedback on how awful your writing is. You are likely to get it ultimately, if you haven't yet and this feedback can be helpful for you to improve although it often depends on who it is from. Either you heard a lot about how great your writing was and you were very happy. It can be quite difficult to move forward for one who is constantly stuck with these external critics whether there are positive or negative.
In addition, Mayakovsky and Rilke have one more thing in common: they see life as a material for a poet. At this point, Mayakovsky mentions that the poet regards everything he encounters as a philological setting.[6] On the one hand, this reminds me of a scene in the John Fante’s novel Ask To Dust. Arturo Bandini, the protagonist of the novel, was wondering if he could make a poem out of it while experiencing an event.[7] This shows that the poet and the writer do not look at the outside world with a closed eye, as if the outside world is a material for their artwork. Similarly, Mayakovsky is really attentive, open to the outside world, and was able to fuse them with his inner world. For example, Mayakovsky mentions that he listens to the sounds while walking outside and hears these sounds, makes a rhythm from these sounds.[8] “An umbrella to write poetry in the rain” was one of what Mayakovsky deemed necessary for poetry.[9] This can be interpreted as when it's raining outside you can see something very impressive for you and want to write about it. Yet, many of us are so distracted that we are not even aware of the streets we pass today. It is not limited to these streets either, we do not even think about the events we go through, We are not aware of ourselves. We become bored of our lives. You may have encountered many people talking about the boredom of their lives. Maybe that person was you. Lack of inspiration. The thought that I am not where I want to be. The feeling of being unable to write under these circumstances. These are all possible. If you're not interested in writing, you can replace that word with a word that denotes anything else you enjoy doing. In this regard, Rilke takes a very impressive approach. Rilke suggests the young poet Kappus that he should not blame his life for seeming poor, instead he should blame himself because he is not a good poet to extract its riches of life.[10] In other words, it is up to you to find and extract the riches of life, and we are all poets of our lives. Moreover, in one of his letters to Kappus, Rilke mentions that he would love to gift Kappus his books; but he could not because he was too poor to even buy his own books.[11]It is impossible not to feel emotional while reading these lines. Obviously, none of the great writers had an easy life. However, they made a poem out of it. This is perhaps a matter of mindset and perspective.
All in all, although Rilke's individual point of view and Mayakovsky's approach to poetry from a social point of view are very different, I have tried to examine the similarities between Rilke's and Mayakovsky's suggestions on poetry in this article. As I finish this article, I want to remind you that this month is “The Month of Suicide Awareness”, and this is really sad that Mayakovsky's "life poem" have been torn by his suicide before it was completed. I invite you and myself to be the poets of our own lives. I invite you and myself to open our umbrella and become the poets of our own lives in the difficult rains of life.
References
Fante, John. The Bandini Quartet. Great Britain: Canongate Books Ltd, 2004.
Mayakovski, V. V. Şiir Nasıl Yapılır. Çev. Alper Çeker. İstanbul: Altıkırkbeş Yayınları, 2016.
Rilke, Rainer Maria. Genç Şaire Mektuplar. Çev. Kâmuran Şipal. İstanbul: Aralık Yayınları, 1998.
[1] V.V. Mayakovski, Şiir Nasıl Yapılır, çev. Alper Çeker. (İstanbul: Altıkırkbeş Yayınları, 2016), 11. [2] Rainer Maria Rilke, Genç Şaire Mektuplar, çev. Kâmuran Şipal (İstanbul: Aralık Yayınları, 1998), 10. [3] Age, 10. [4] Age, 11. [5] Age, 12-13. [6] V.V. Mayakovski, Şiir Nasıl Yapılır, çev. Alper Çeker. (İstanbul: Altıkırkbeş Yayınları, 2016), 22. [7] John Fante, The Bandini Quartet (Great Britain: Canongate Books Ltd, 2004), 483. [8] V.V. Mayakovski, Şiir Nasıl Yapılır, çev. Alper Çeker. (İstanbul: Altıkırkbeş Yayınları, 2016),35. [9] Age, 16. [10] Rainer Maria Rilke, Genç Şaire Mektuplar, çev. Kâmuran Şipal (İstanbul: Aralık Yayınları, 1998), 12. [11] Age, 23.