3 - Three Diaries, 1898–1900
from II - Diaries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
Summary
Rilke's nomenclature for these diaries is misleading. Only a small part of the “Florentine diary” (TF, 13–140) was written in Florence, and it was then continued in Viareggio, although it contains, to be sure, many memories of the city he had just precipitously abandoned. The final lengthy entry is from Zoppot, the Baltic resort near Danzig, on 6 July 1898. The “Schmargendorf diary” (143–306) is a patchwork; it starts in Zoppot on 11 July and continues from Berlin with a single entry on 1 August. Next, a letter from Arco (10 March 1899) is inserted. The diary contains no record of the first trip to Russia (25 April–15 June 1899) or the summer of 1899 spent at Meiningen in Russian studies. It is taken up again on 3 November 1899 and proceeds very desultorily (with many stories and poems interjected) until 2 May 1900. Then, still under the rubric of “Schmargendorf diary,” it contains three entries encapsulating the second Russian trip (see chapter 3, note 1), and ends with an excursion to Bremen and to Hamburg. The “Worpswede diary” (309–430) begins on 2 September 1900 in Hamburg, moves back to Worpswede, and with a lacuna created by some missing pages goes on after 4 October in Berlin-Schmargendorf until 22 December.
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- Young Rilke and his Time , pp. 93 - 121Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008