Elle cover of Gaga reveals a new tattoo on her arm. The quote is from Rainer Maria Rilke. Rilke wrote several mail to his friend Franz Xaver Kampus who was in the army and sent poems to Rilke to get his advice on them. Rilke is very polite, and very encouraging. He is saying, that no matter what, write because you feel so. Let me put here Gaga's quote:
Erforschen Sie den Grund, der Sie schreiben heißt; prüfen Sie, ob er in der tiefsten Stelle Ihres Herzens seine Wurzeln ausstreckt, gestehen Sie sich ein, ob Sie sterben müßten, wenn es Ihnen versagt würde zu schreiben.
Dieses vor allem: fragen Sie sich in der stillsten Stunde Ihrer Nacht: muß ich schreiben?
Gaga's translation is "'In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?"
My translation is more like this:
Research the foundation what is writing for you. Prove if the writing deeply rooted in your heart, and ask if you would die if you can't write anymore? Ask in the quietest moments of the night, if you really must write?
From Rilke, we never get the answer if the sent poems were good or bad. Rilke sends the poems back to the writer. His advice is not to compare you to other writers. Try to find your own voice. Do not write because the others do so. And here is the answer from Rilke again:
"wenn Sie mit einem starken und einfachen ich muß dieser ernsten Frage begegnen dürfen, dann bauen Sie Ihr Leben nach dieser Notwendigkeit; Ihr Leben bis hinein in seine gleichgültigste und geringste Stunde muß ein Zeichen und Zeugnis werden diesem Drange. Dann nähern Sie sich der Natur. Dann versuchen Sie, wie ein erster Mensch, zu sagen, was Sie sehen und erleben und lieben und verlieren. "
If you find the answer is "I must write" ...then you start writing, and tell like the first man, what you see, what you live and bear and loose.
The nice thing about the tattoo that it also makes people read Rilke again...
