This is a book of meditative reading. Each of the sixty-one aphoristic entries aims to interpret Rilke-s poetry as a musician might play Debussy-s Clair de lune, to transpose into the key of language the song, the melody, and the refrain of Rilke-s gentle disposition: his recognition of the transience of things; his acknowledgment of the vulnerability and fragility of people, animals, and flowers; his empathy toward those who suffer.
The cut flowers gently laid out on the garden table "recovering from their death already begun" in one of theSonnets to Orpheus form a thread now visible now faint through most of this book. And because of the flowers, the concept of gentleness forms another thread, and because of gentleness, hands-agents of gentleness throughout Rilke-s poetry-enfold these pages. The German word leise (gentle, tender, quiet) weaves the first thread; the second is woven by flowers, then by girls- hands, then by angels, the beloved, the poor
