Tsvetaeva, Marina.

about Rilke and her relationship with him, with several quotations from his poetical works, including the poem "Menschen bei Nacht", and about her own writing and work, including a transcription of a five-line poem written to her by Rilke, the letters written in German, also including a sepia photograph of her three-year-old son inscribed on verso, and a hand-coloured Christmas card designed by her daughter Ariadne Efron; in the letters she declines to release the texts of her correspondence with Rilke, reflects on her relationship with him, her place in Russian letters ("...in meiner Sprache gelte ich für einen der zwei "schwersten" Dichtern (der andere—Boris Pasternak...nach mir—und nicht nach mir allein—der grösste Dichter von der russischen Zukunft..."), enquires after Rilke's death, meditates on his name and his influence on her development as an artist, makes enquiries about his wider themes and interests ("...Hatte R. die Juden gern? Machte er einen Unterschied? Judentum ist doch auch ein Element (Feuer, Wasser, Luft, Erde), wie Russentum..."), describes the books of his she owned, discusses Pasternak, Natalya Gontcharova, her work translating a poem into French, her unfortunate status as a Russian in France, away from her country, her relationship with Communists and her husband's affiliations with the White Russians, gives news of Mayakovsky, describing her political views and her earlier royalist leanings and her solitary, artistic soul: "...Ganz allein steh ich, im Leben und im Wirken—wie in allen Schulen meiner Kindheit—mit vielen Freunden die ich nie sah und sehen wede. Ganz allein mit meiner Stimme...; she comments on her poem "Perekop" ("...grosse Dichtung über den Russen-gegen Russen Krieg")...Es ist keine Zeit für grosse Dichtungen..."); she also comments on the Princess Thurn und Taxis's book on Rilke, comparing it favourably with the work of Lou Andreas Salomé, and gives a long, trenchant and ferocious critique of the biography by Karl Sieber, summing it up in a five line quotation from Edmond Rostand



 



...Rilkes Briefe und Bücher mit Widmungen und seine—vielleicht letzte—Elegie vererbe ich dem Weimarischen Rilke-Haus (warum nicht Rilke-Hain, da jedes Haus durch ihn zum Hain ward und wird?)—mit derselben Bitte: 50 Jahre nach meinem Tod...Nichts, nichts weiss ich von seinem Tod. Wie ging er? Wusste er? Wer war bein ihm? Was war sein letztes Wort?...In der Savoye bleibe ich drei Monate, mein Mann ist lungenkrank und weilt seit Dezember auf einem Sanatorium, jetzt hat er uns ein ganz kleines Sommerhaus geleitet, unweit von ihm: mir unter den Kindern: einem Mädchen von sechzehn und einem Jungen von fünf. Ich selbst bin fünf und dreissig...einmal schrieb mir R (seinen ganzen Namen schreib ich ungern—zu laut, zu ausgeredet—nein, ein grosses stilles (und steiles) R..—wie sein Fels (roc) Rarin, wie seine Rhône, wenn sie vom Fels fällt, R. sein Tauf-und-Dichtername in einem, R., einfach er)—also, einmal schrieb mir R.—Du hast nicht recht, Du bist im Recht (im Reiche Recht, dass sag ich). Rechthaben...Von seinen Büchern hab ich nur die Elegien, den Orpheus unter den Verger, die er mir schenkte, alle anderen blieben in Russland—mit allem anderen. Und noch die Briefe, die mir mein Mann zu Ostern schenkte. Da ist alles...Am anderen Tag erschien von mir ein offener Brief an ihm [Mayakovsky]—ein Jubelruf!—Russland lebt noch! Und—den Tag nachher warf man mich aus allen emigrantischen Tageblättern heraus (wo ich manchmal Verse drucken liess)—als, "sowietisch, gefährlich"...was weiss ich noch. Mich, die in voller Revolution, in Moskau, im Jahre 1919 den schlimmsten...gegenüber einem Saal von 2.000 Menschen, meine Liebe zum letzten Tzaren kündete...Um zu beweisen, dass R. aus einem Bauerngeschlecht stammte? Und wozu das? Ist Bauer wirklich mehr oder weniger als Adliger? Und was hat das Bauernthum mit Dichtertum zu thun? Mit Rilkes Dichten? (Ist der Sieber am Ende Proletarier? Nein, da würden Rilkes Ahnen ja Arbeiter sein!)...Alles falsch, alles stumpf, und alles dumm, denn wir haben ja nebenan Rilkes Wort über seine Kindheit, und Jugend, Wort dass jedes siebersche Lügen straft (Vorwort: "Ich habe natürlich nur eine Stimme, aber ich hoffe" etc. Nein, du hast keine: wenn R. in der Turnstunde spricht, schweigt dein ganzes Geschreibsel...



47 pages, various sizes, most with autograph envelopes stamped and postmarked, Meudon, St.Pierre de Rumilly and Clamart, 2 April 1930 to 23 September 1933

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Letters of the great Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva are of the utmost rarity. Apart from this important collection, there have been no examples of her handwriting on the market. It seems extremely unlikely that any other letters by her will ever appear at auction.

This is an astonishing, expansive, candid and poetical collection of letters from one great poet, Tsvetaeva, about another, Rainer Maria Rilke, and her love and regard for him. The letters are in effect an extended love poem to the late German poet, written to one of his closest friends and admirers. Although German was not her mother tongue, Tsvetaeva handles it in masterly and poetic fashion, relishing the alliteration of his names in an extended meditation on Rilke's initials, which she customarily writes in larger letters. She also reflects on her sad life and works ("Einmal...sollte ich ein 12jähriges faules und reiches Mädchen—Moskau, Revolution, Hunger==franzözisch lehren. Also: être—avoir...ich habe keine Kinder, ich bin meine Kinder..."). She expounds on the relationship of a poet to his muses, citing Goethe, but always with Rilke, obsessively  at the centre. It has been suggested fancifully that a letter of Keats to Fanny Brawne contains a poem braided into the text.  All Tsvetaeva's letters here are love poems to Rilke which become more open, candid and daring as she becomes more closely acquainted with the recipient, whom she clearly did not know well before they first communicated. As she gains confidence she becomes more open about her life, her politics, her art and her past and her Russianness: "...Russen und Dichter sind Rebellen. In einem anderen Reich Gegen andere Gesetze...

Tsvetaeva had an affair with Boris Pasternak and in 1926 both separately began a correspondence with Rilke, then in the last months of his life. Rilke and Tsvetaeva had a brief, largely epistolary relationship in Switzerland, which produced great poetical works from both writers. Tsvetaeva refers to Rilke's last works here as the "Marina-Elegien". Rilke died on 29 December 1926, the date is marked five years later with a letter from Tsvetaeva to Nanny Wunderly-Volkart. The Russian poet continued her European wandering until 1939 when she returned to the Soviet Union and died there by her own hand in 1941.

We should like to acknowledge the assistance of Mr Aleksandr Kargaltsev in the cataloguing of this lot.